THE    RUSSIAN   ADVANCM 

By    ALBERT     1.     BEVERIDG™ 


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THE   RUSSIAN  ADVANCE 


ALBERT     J.    BEVERIDGE 


WITH     MAPS 


NEW  YORK  AND   LONDON 

HARPER    &    BROTHERS    PUBLISHERS 

1904 


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Copyright,  1903,  by  Harper  &  Brothers. 
Copyright,  1901,  1902,  by  The  Curtis  Publishing  Company. 

All  rights  resein;€d. 
Published  November,  1903. 


CONTENTS 

CBAP  PAGE 

I.  Russia  on  the  Pacific i 

II.  Russian  Empire-Building  in  Manchuria  ...  i6 

III.  Other  Methods  of  Russian  Advance  ....  ^^ 

IV.  Types  of  Civil  Agents  of  the  Russian  Advance  48 

V.  The  Overlords  of  the  Czar's  Advancing  Power 

IN  the  Far  East 57 

VI.  Results  of  Russian  Railway  Advance    ...  68 

VII.  Manchurian  Railway  Results  and  Methods    .  81 

VIII.  A  Diplomatic  Game  for  an  Empire      ....  93 

IX.  How  Russia  at  Last  Reached  the  Unfrozen  Sea  ho 

X.  Collision  of  Russia's  Advance  with  Japan      .  122 

XI.  The  Soldier  of  the  Russian  Advance  and  the 

Soldier  of  Japan 138 

XII.  The  Russian  Advance  Paralleled  by  the  Ger- 

man Advance 152 

XIII.  A  Chapter  of  Digression:  American  Needs  in 

the  Orient 173 

XIV.  A   Second   Chapter   of    Digression:   American 

Progress  in  the  Far  East 187 

XV.  Siberia:  The  Highway  of  Russian  Advance     .  208 

XVI.  High    and    Low    Water    Marks    of    Siberian 

Progress 224 

XVII.  The  Red  Day  of  Blagovestchensk 242 

XVIII.  Russian  Capital  and  Labor 254 

XIX.  The  Russian  Working-man 272 

XX.  The  Labor  Laws  of  Russia 285 

iii 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGB 

XXI.  The  Independent  Peasant  Artisan  ....  302 

XXII.  February  19,  1861,  the  Birthday  of  Russian 

Industrial  Freedom 319 

XXIII.  Holy  Russia,  the  Orthodox  Nation      .     ,     .  338 

XXIV.  Priest,  People,  and  Church 354 

XXV.  Russian  National  Ideals 367 

XXVI.  Russian    Points   of   View — Russian   Opinions 

of  American   Institutions 385 

XXVII.  Things  Casually  Observed 401 

XXVIII.  The    Russian    Common    School   and   Country 

Hospital 416 

XXIX.  Three  Russians  of  World  Fame 426 


APPENDIX 


Treaty  of  Shimonoseki,  by  which  Southern  Manchuria 

WAS  Ceded  to  Japan 463 

Mikado's  Rescript  Withdrawing  from  Manchuria  .     .  468 

The  (Reputed)  Cassini  Convention 469 

The  Russo-Manchurian  Railway  Agreement  ....  473 
Anglo-Russian  Agreement  Respecting  Spheres  of  In- 
fluence IN  China 481 

Treaty  of  Offensive  and  Defensive  Alliance  between 

Great  Britain  and  Japan 482 

Spf,cimen    of    the    Regulations    concerning    Foreign 

Joint  Stock.  Companies  Operating  in  Russia     .  483 


MAPS 

Historic  Russian  Advance Facing  p.     i 

Russia,  and  the  Remainder  of  Europe  and  Asia        "        367 


PREFACE 

ON  the  author's  return  from  a  journey  made  in  1901 
through  Manchuria  and  the  Far  East,  preceded  by 
a  visit  to  Russia  and  Siberia,  a  series  of  articles  was  pub- 
hshed  in  the  Saturday  Evening  Post,  of  Philadelphia, 
setting  out  things  seen  and  observed  in  the  regions  of 
Russia's  latest  Asiatic  advance. 

A  description  was  also  given  of  the  apparent  situation 
of  China  as  affected  by  the  operations  there  of  two  or 
three  European  nations;  and  what  then  seemed  to  be  the 
probable  conflict  between  Russia  and  Japan  was  par- 
ticularly pointed  out,  with  the  causes  of  it. 

These  articles  form  a  considerable  portion  of  this 
volume;  and,  indeed,  the  seeming  advisability  of  their 
publication  in  book  form,  and  certain  requests  therefor, 
are  the  occasion  and  apology  for  this  work.  They  are 
reproduced  practically  without  change. 

It  was  believed  that  a  more  comprehensive  under- 
standing of  the  whole  subject  might  be  given  if  other 
chapters  were  added  briefly  describing  Siberia  and  certain 
conditions  and  tendencies  in  Russia  itself.  These  form 
the  remainder  of  the  book. 

It  has  been  the  earnest  endeavor  to  treat  the  subject 
with  impartiality.  Indeed,  nothing  has  been  essayed 
except  to  give  the  reader  a  faithful  report  of  what  any 
inquiring  traveller  may  see  and  hear  for  himself  if  he 
should  take  the  same  journey. 

Albert  J.  Beveridge. 

Indianapolis, 

October  1,  1903. 


THE   RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 


HISTORIC 


VDVAXCE 


THE   RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 


RUSSIA    ON    THE    PACIFIC 

THE  Russian  has  arrived  on  the  Pacific.  For  decades, 
of  course,  the  world  has  been  dimly  conscious  of  a 
gray-clad,  militant  figure  standing  on  the  frozen  shores 
of  that  ocean.  But  while  gigantic  in  its  proportions,  its 
outlines  were  vague  and  indefinite.  Surrounded  by  arctic 
fogs,  it  was  apparently  nothing  more  than  a  rraritime 
sentinel  of  the  ice-imprisoned  harbors  of  the  Czar.  Only 
England ,  with  inherited  apprehension ,  gave  much  attention 
to  the  apparition,  and  even  England's  attention  amount- 
ed to  nothing  more  than  instinctive  fear.  Occasionally, 
it  is  true,  far-sighted  thinkers  divined  the  real  significance 
of  the  Russian  on  the  north  seas,  but  their  interpretation 
of  the  phenomenon  fell  on  ears  deaf  to  their  message. 
The  world,  and  especially  the  American  people,  went  on 
without  a  thought  of  the  spectre  which,  after  the  first 
surprise  at  its  appearance,  became  a  mere  commonplace, 
without  meaning  or  interest. 

But  within  the  last  five  years  the  Russian's  presence 
upon  the  Pacific  has  claimed  the  acute  attention  of  every 
cabinet  in  Europe  and  of  every  thoughtful  American 
citizen;  for  he  is  now  manifest  on  the  Asiatic  shores  of 
that  ocean  in  other  guise  than  that  of  the  uniformed 
bayonet  -  bearer  of  the  Czar.  He  is  there  as  Russian  sol- 
dier and  officer,  it  is  true,  and  in  portentous  numbers 

I 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

and  power.  He  is  there  on  the  merchant  vessels  of  one  of 
the  great  ship-Hnes  of  the  world.  More  important  still, 
he  is  there  as  the  builder  and  operator  of  modem  railways. 
Still  more  important,  he  is  there  as  the  actual  adminis- 
trator of  dominions  so  vast  that  they  may  of  themselves 
be  called  an  empire.  Most  important  of  all,  he  is  there 
as  the  Russian  peasant;  and  that  means  that  he  has 
arrived  in  the  form  of  the  Russian  people  themselves. 

In  the  summer  of  1901,  a  single  ship  of  the  "Russian 
Volunteer  Fleet,"  which  the  writer  inspected  at  Port 
A)tft.u^,  Russia's  Manchurian  stronghold  on  the  ice-free 
sea,  had  landed  at  another  port  1500  Russian  peas- 
ants. These  were  but  a  single  shipment  from  the  con- 
gested agricultural  districts  of  southern  Russia  to  such 
destination  in  eastern  Asia  as  the  statesmen  of  the  empire 
thought  advisable.^  And  these  agricultural  peasants  came 
with  their  wives  and  their  children,  their  beds  and  their 
furniture,  their  tools  and  their  implements.  Severed  from 
the  land  of  their  birth  and  the  ancient  tombs  of  their  an- 
cestors by  thousands  of  miles  of  ocean,  they  had  all  the 
appearance  of  men  and  women  determined  and  equipped 
to  plant  permanently  new  seeds  of  Slav  empire  on  the 
fresh  fields  of  the  extending  Russian  dominions. 

The  agriculturalist  and  the  artisan,  the  husband  and 
the  wife,  the  mother  and  the  daughter,  young  men  and 
young  women,  boys  and  girls,  babes  new-born,  were 
following  so  closely  upon  Russian  military  advance  that 
the  world  hardly  noticed  it.  So  swiftly  was  the  humble 
hut  of  the  Russian  peasant  constructed  beneath  the 
shadow  of  the  newly  unfurled  Russian  flag  that  even  the 
keenest  statesman  lost  sight  of  this  permanent  and  mean- 
ingful fact  in  his  amazement  at  the  planting  of  that  flag 
itself.  No  one  but  diplomats  and  statesmen,  who  must 
deal  with  temporary  situations,  need  be  deeply  concerned 

'  These  peasants  were  not  sent  into  Manchuria,  of  coxirse;  they 
were  settled  in  the  Ussuri  littoral  back  of  Vladivostock,  and 
practically  on  the  Manchurian  frontier. 

2 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

with  the  purely  miUtary  advance  of  any  nation,  but  when 
a  people  move  forward  it  is  a  circumstance  of  world-wide 
significance  and  it  is  of  especial  and  practical  concern  to 
every  people  upon  whose  interests  that  advance  impinges 
or  whose  future  in  any  direction  that  advance  affects. 

Three  Russian  war-ships  lay  in  the  beautiful  harbor  of 
Nagasaki,  Japan,  in  the  late  summer  of  1899.  "Oh  yes; 
we  are  getting  used  to  that,"  said  an  English  merchant, 
whose  attention  was  called  to  the  Russian  colors.  And 
it  was  natural  enough,  for  Nagasaki  is  a  coaling-station, 
and  very  convenient  for  many  purposes.  But  in  1901 
the  sea-flag  of  the  Czar  floated  from  a  ship  in  the  road- 
stead from  which  the  Woosung  River  leads  up  to  Shang- 
hai, the  commercial  clearing-house  of  China. 

"Ten  years  ago  that  flag  was  seldom — in  fact,  hardly 
ever — seen  in  these  waters."  Again  it  was  an  English 
merchant  who  spoke,  and  a  man  who  had  spent  his  entire 
life  since  boyhood  in  commercial  enterprises  in  the  Far 
East.  "It  is  a  multiplying  circumstance,"  he  went  on, 
"and  it  has  its  counterpart  right  here  among  our  business 
houses.  The  most  active,  aggressive  financial  institution 
in  Shanghai  to-day  is  the  branch  at  this  place  of  the 
Russo-Chinese  Bank.  It  is  not  yet  so  great  as  some  of 
our  other  banks,  but  is  making  itself  felt  very  effectively. 
Decidedl3^  Russia,  which  formerly  was  a  subject  of  specu- 
lative conversation,  is  getting  on  our  nerves  in  a  very 
tangible  and  irritating  way." 

In  Yokohama,  five  years  ago,  the  only  representative  of 
the  Autocrat  of  all  the  Russias  was  the  Russian  consul; 
yet  in  1901  the  Russo-Chinese  Bank  had  been  established, 
and  was  already  doing  a  considerable  business  there.  Not 
only  so,  but  the  ground  had  already  been  purchased,  the 
plans  of  the  architect  drawn  on  his  blue-prints,  and  the 
foundations  laid  for  a  building  of  this  financial  cor- 
poration. And  this  building,  it  was  said,  was  to  be  by 
far  the  finest  and  most  costly  of  all  the  banking  establish- 
ments in  this  principal  port  of  the  Mikado's  Empire. 

3 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

"What — not  in  Hong-Kong,  and  already?"  exclaimed 
an  American  traveller  when  told  by  an  officer  of  a  cer- 
tain banking  corporation  of  the  Far  East  that  the  Russo- 
Chinese  Bank  had  established  a  temporary  agency  in 
some  little  offices  in  Hong-Kong  itself;  for  Hong-Kong 
is  purely  English.  Moreover,  it  is  in  the  extreme  south 
of  China;  and  here,  amid  surroundings  of  tropical  beauty, 
and  in  the  very  centre  of  foreign  commercial  activities 
in  the  Orient,  beats  the  heart  of  British  influence  in 
the  Chinese  Far  East.  It  appeared  too  audacious  for 
belief  that  the  financial  arm  of  the  Russian  govern- 
ment should  so  soon  invade  Hong-Kong;  for  the  Russo- 
Chinese  Bank  was  not  in  existence  even  in  Russia  itself 
five  years  before. 

"Yes,  even  here  in  Hong-Kong,  and  at  this  early  hour," 
repeated  the  English  banker,  "the  Russo-Chinese  Bank 
is  doing  business  right  before  our  very  eyes;  and  while 
as  yet  it  does  not  do  much  business  or  attract  much 
attention,  nevertheless  it  is  here!"  Still  this  branch 
of  the  Russo-Chinese  Bank  is  competing  for  business, 
and,  if  reports  be  credited,  getting  it.  But  Hong-Kong's 
great  British  banks  have  nothing  to  fear  from  this 
Russian  competition. 

So  the  Russian  advance  is  a  commercial  and  financial 
movement ;  from  Gibraltar-like  Vladivostock,  on  the  north, 
all  along  the  shores  of  the  Pacific,  into  the  very  citadel  of 
English  power  on  China's  extreme  south.  It  is  a  diplomatic 
advance,  too,  throughout  every  province  of  the  Flowery 
Kingdom  as  well  as  on  the  Chinese  seaboard.  It  is  an 
advance  by  merchant  vessels  and  war-ships  from  Odessa 
to  Port  Arthur;  by  railways  through  Manchuria  even  to 
the  gates  of  Pekin;  by  Russian  peasantry,  cultivated 
farms,  and  permanent  homes  over  the  rich  grain-fields  of 
the  Ussuri  littoral,  and  even  within  the  borders  of  Man- 
churia; by  towns  and  cities  and  all  the  activities  of  peace 
into  the  very  centre  of  Manchuria,  which  until  this  very 
moment  the  world's  wisest  statesmen  have  insisted  and 

4 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

believed,  though  with  the  faith  of  fear,  was  permanently 
Chinese  territory.  And  this  advance,  the  methods  of  it, 
the  people  who  are  making  it,  their  nature,  characteristics, 
and  development,  are  to-day,  and  for  decades  to  come  will 
continue  to  be,  the  most  engaging  subject  of  observation 
to  the  student  of  the  movement  of  races  which  the  con- 
temporary world  affords,  as  well  as  the  most  insistent 
and  important  foreign  problem  with  which  European 
and  American  statesmen  must  henceforth  deal. 

Let  us,  then,  consider  the  phenomenon  itself,  and  after- 
wards look  somewhat  into  its  sources.  Let  us,  first  of 
all,  observe  the  Russian  at  work  in  Manchuria.  Let  us 
look  upon  his  actual  deeds  and  achievements  there.  Let 
us  see  him  in  the  visible  and  material  work  of  Russian 
empire  -  building  within  a  new  dominion.  Then  let  us 
follow,  as  well  as  we  can,  the  rough  outlines  of  his 
Oriental  statesmanship  and  policy — as  well  as  we  can, 
because  it  is  not  possible  for  any  one  to  know  with 
minute  accuracy  the  processes  of  statecraft  by  which 
the  Russian  prepares  the  way  for  his  subtle,  and  yet 
solid  and  masterful,  advance.  Then  let  us  note  the 
tangible  effects  of  his  activities  upon  the  other  great 
powers  now  making  themselves  felt  in  a  physical  way  in 
the  Orient.  And  then  let  us  hark  back  on  the  mighty 
trail  the  Slav  has  made  across  Siberia,  enter  his  hitherto 
suffocating,  though  vast,  original  home,  and  observe  him 
in  the  fields,  villages,  and  factories  of  Russia  itself. 

First,  then,  of  Manchuria.  Within  the  last  two  years 
everybody  has  heard  of  Manchuria.  Even  before  that 
time  the  popular  mind  had  a  vague  idea  that  something 
or  other  of  more  or  less  importance  was  going  on  in  Man- 
churia. Later  the  American  man  in  the  furrow  and  in 
the  shop  learned  that  the  Russians  were  building  a  rail- 
way in  Manchuria.  Recently  our  newspapers  and  maga- 
zines have  been  filled  with  editorials  and  articles  on  our 
diplomacy  as  it  affects  Manchuria.  But  just  what  Man- 
churia is,  just  where  it  is,  and  just  what  is  being  done 

5 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

there  which  is  creating  this  world-wide  curiosity,  are  not 
generally  known.  Even  the  few  students  who  have  some 
general  understanding  of  the  events  transpiring  there  are 
not  accurately  informed  of  them. 

The  modern  scientific  method,  first  developed  in  the 
German  universities  and  now  adopted  by  all  great  insti- 
tutions of  learning,  rejects  the  more  or  less  imaginary 
accounts  of  what  used  to  be  considered  the  world's  his- 
torians, and  requires  the  student  himself  personally 
to  examine  original  manuscripts,  delve  into  archives, 
and  write  anew,  from  first-hand  investigation,  corrected 
chronicles  of  the  past.  This  method  not  only  sends 
archaeologists  to  uncover  the  hidden  cities  of  antiquity 
and  replace  with  a  description  of  real  discoveries  the 
legends  of  them  handed  down  through  generations,  but 
in  our  own  country  the  student  of  the  germ  of  our  gov- 
ernment— the  New  England  town-meeting — is  no  longer 
satisfied  with  inaccurate  accounts  of  the  old  writers;  he 
must  go  to  the  interior  of  some  New  England  State  where 
the  town-meeting  may  still  be  seen,  and,  observing  its 
workings  with  the  naked  eye  and  absorbing  its  spirit  by 
actual  contact,  describe  the  facts  as  they  are,  and,  after 
having  learned  the  truth,  to  state  it,  and  then,  and  not 
till  then,  deduce  his  conclusions.  If  this  is  the  true 
method  of  studying  the  institutions  of  by-gone  centuries, 
of  course  it  is  much  more  the  true  method  of  observing 
the  weighty  occurrences  of  the  present  day. 

It  is  with  something  of  this  spirit — though,  of  course, 
without  any  pretension  to  the  thoroughness  and  accuracy 
required  by  the  modem  scientific  method  —  that  the 
following  observations  on  the  Russian  advance  in  the 
Far  East,  and  particularly  Russia's  operations  in  Man- 
churia, have  been  made  and  are  here  set  down. 

What  is  Manchuria,  and  what  are  the  Russians  doing 
there?  In  answer  to  the  first  part  of  the  question,  more 
or  less  accurate  accounts  are  already  in  existence;  but 
in  answer  to  the  second  part  of  the  question,  no  one  who 

6 


THE    RUvSSIAN    ADVANCE 

is  not  a  Russian  has  up  to  the  present  time  made  original 
investigations  with  a  free  hand.  It  is  claimed  by  some 
that  no  opportunity  has  existed;  and  Manchuria  certainly 
was  "closed"  to  the  world  during  the  Russian  operations 
in  settling  the  disturbed  conditions  following  the  Boxer 
insurrection.  While  you  may  now  board  a  vestibuled 
train  of  sleeping  -  cars  at  Port  Arthur  and  go  directly 
through  the  centre  of  Manchuria  into  Siberia  and  on  to 
Moscow  without  change,  no  one  even  now  appears  to  have 
attempted  to  do  more,  and  it  is  declared  that  no  one  has 
been  permitted  to  do  more. 

An  English  officer,  as  we  are  informed,  who  attempted 
to  make  such  investigations,  upon  taking  an  independent 
excursion  into  the  country,  was  arrested  by  the  authorities 
and  sent  over  the  frontier.  Several  accounts  have  been 
given  of  the  great  difficulty  in  penetrating  Manchuria 
before  the  road  was  "opened"  to  passengers;  but  it  is  be- 
lieved that  proper  measures  were  not  taken  in  advance 
to  assure  freedom  of  observation.  Certainly  the  writer 
experienced  no  such  difficulty,  and  on  a  frank  statement 
to  the  proper  minister  in  St.  Petersburg,  was  accorded 
unqualified  and  absolute  liberty  to  see  what  was  to  be 
seen,  and  to  hear  what  was  being  said  within  Manchuria 
itself.  So  far  as  could  be  detected,  no  seal  was  put 
upon  the  lips  of  any  one,  from  Chinese  railroad  laborer 
up  to  the  highest  representative  of  the  Czar.  Absolutely 
no  restrictions  of  any  kind  were  imposed.  No  guards  of 
Cossacks  or  other  soldiery  were  even  suggested;  the 
authorities  advised  no  particular  route  of  travel,  and 
neither  offered  nor  refused  any  aid.  Not  a  single  ob- 
stacle was  thrown  in  the  way.  No  excuses  or  evasions 
were  made.  With  as  full  liberty  as  is  accorded  a  foreigner 
on  a  tour  of  observation  throughout  the  United  States,  the 
journey  through  Manchuria,  of  which  these  pages  are 
the  imperfect  narrative,  was  made  during  the  year  iqoi. 

Let  us  see,  then,  where  Manchuria  is,  how  big  it  is, 
and  what  kind  of  a  country  it  is. 

7 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

If  you  will  take  Germany  and  France  together,  you 
will  have  a  territory  scarcely  larger  than  the  three  great 
Chinese  provinces  combined  under  the  general  term 
Manchuria. 

England,  Scotland,  Ireland,  and  Wales  are  not  one- 
third  so  large  as  Manchuria. 

If  you  will  take  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Iowa,  their 
combined  area  is  less  than  half  that  of  Manchuria. 

Pennsylvania,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  all  New 
England  are  less  than  one-half  the  size  of  Manchuria, 
and  no  richer  in  resources. 

We  thus  see  that  Manchuria  is,  in  territorial  extent, 
itself  an  empire.  It  is  an  empire  more  favorably  situated 
as  to  its  climatic  conditions  than  any  part  of  Asia.  It 
is  in  the  same  latitude  as  southern  Canada  and  the 
northern  portion  of  the  United  States.  Its  northern  lim- 
its are  about  the  same  as  the  northern  limits  of  Quebec. 
Its  southern  limits  are  about  the  same  as  the  southern 
limits  of  Maryland.  It  is  bounded  on  the  north  by  the 
richest  portions  of  Siberia,  which  not  many  years  ago  was 
itself  a  part  of  the  dominion  of  the  Manchus ;  for  several 
hundred  miles  on  the  east  by  the  grain  -  fields  of  the 
Ussuri  district  of  Russian  Siberia,  also  until  recently 
a  part  of  the  Chinese  Empire;  on  the  east  and  south  by 
Korea,  over  which  the  world's  next  great  war  will  prob- 
ably be  fought,  and  soon;  on  the  west  by  Mongolia,  and 
on  the  south  by  Korea,  China,  and  the  gulfs  and  extensions 
of  the  Yellow  Sea,  which  touches  or  commands  much  of 
that  empire.  On  these  gulfs  are  two  of  the  finest  military 
and  commercial  ports  of  Asia,  or  the  world — Port  Arthur 
and  Talienhwan,  or,  as  the  Russians  call  it,  Dalni. 

This  enormous  territory  is  fertilized  by  rivers  running 
generally  both  north  and  south.  Portions  of  the  valleys 
of  these  rivers  and  the  plains  beyond  the  valleys  are  as 
fertile  as  those  of  the  Sangamon  in  Illinois  or  the  Miami 
in  Ohio.  Mountains  traverse  the  northwest  and  south- 
west, and  again  the  northeastern  portion  of  this  great 

8 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

region.  The  northern  mountains  are  rich  in  gold, 
possibly  richer  than  the  gold  -  fields  of  that  portion  of 
Siberia  which  is  just  across  the  river  from  them,  and 
of  the  wealth  of  which  the  world  at  large  seems  to  be  in 
ignorance.  The  mountains  to  the  southeast  and  south 
are  said  to  be  rich  in  iron  and  coal.  The  coal  now 
being  turned  out  in  quantities  at  Shanhaikwan,  just 
beyond  the  southwestern  borders  of  Manchuria  and 
directly  on  the  Gulf  of  Liao-Toung,  is  equal  for  all  pur- 
poses to  the  coal  produced  in  the  United  States. 

Here,  then,  is  an  empire  capable  of  sustaining  fifty 
millions  of  people,  and  with  scarcely  more  than  fifteen 
million  inhabitants  at  present;  an  empire  with  two  of  the 
best  ports  in  the  world  for  commercial  and  military  pur- 
poses, with  coal  of  a  high  quality  immediately  at  hand;  an 
empire  which,  in  its  strategic  situation  on  the  Pacific 
and  in  all  Oriental  affairs  is  second  only  to  the  command- 
ing position  of  Japan  itself. 

And  all  over  this  territory  Russia  has  spread  her  tan- 
gible influence  in  less  than  seven  years,  with  the  loss  of 
scarcely  a  man,  and  the  expenditure  of  hardly  a  dollar 
outside  of  her  investment  in  railways  and  fortifications. 
Indeed,  it  may  be  accepted  as  a  settled  fact  that  Russia 
has  already  acquired  Manchuria,  if  she  concludes  to 
remain  there,  although  it  is  still  nominally  Chinese,  and 
not  Russian,  and  its  governors  are  still  appointed  by  the 
Chinese  Emperor.  For,  no  matter  what  treaties  say,  no 
matter  what  may  be  the  statements  of  diplomacy  regard- 
ing Manchuria,  the  fact  exists  that  its  fate  is  practically 
in  the  hands  of  Russia.  It  may  continue  as  a  province 
of  China;  but,  if  so,  it  will  be  of  Russia's  grace  and  not 
of  Russia's  necessity.  Its  ports  may  remain  open  to  the 
trade  of  the  world;  but  if  they  do,  it  will  not  be  because 
of  the  limitations  of  Russia's  power,  but  as  a  matter  of 
Russia's  policy. 

For  Russia,  for  all  practical  purposes,  holds  every  foot 
of  Manchuria  in  her  firm,  masterful,  intelligent  grasp. 

9 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Russian  law,  in  the  sense  that  all  shall  have  justice 
regularly  administered;  Russian  order,  in  the  sense  that 
murder  and  outrage  by  robber  bands  and  savage  clans 
shall  cease;  Russian  system,  in  the  sense  that  regularity 
and  method  shall  succeed  continuous  social,  political, 
and  commercial  disturbance  —  Russian  law,  order,  and 
system,  as  thus  understood,  are  there,  and,  it  appears  to 
the  observer,  are  there  forever.  Chinese  law  still  exists 
in  Manchuria;  but  it  is  now  promptly  and  impartially 
administered.  Forever  is  a  long  time;  but  it  is  not 
extravagant  to  use  the  word  with  reference  to  Russia  in 
Manchuria,  because  it  is  a  fact,  to  which  attention  will  be 
hereafter  given,  that  Russia  has  seldom,  if  ever,  per- 
manently retreated  from  any  spot  where  her  authority  has 
been  established,  except  Alaska,  which  she  believed  she 
was  selling  to  a  permanently  friendly  nation.  But  whether 
she  remains  or  departs  will  be  a  sheer  question  of  what 
she  wants  to  do,  and  not  a  question  of  what  she  must  do. 
Even  temporary  evacuation  will  mean  little  as  to  her 
ultimate  purposes;  for  she  will  leave  behind  her  foun- 
dations of  permanent  occupation,  to  which  at  any  time 
she  can  return.  An  achievement  so  vast,  so  quietly 
accomplished,  so  cheaply  secured,  so  easily  consummated, 
so  important  in  itself,  and  so  beyond  calculation  in  its 
influence  upon  the  rest  of  the  world,  compels  the  admira- 
tion of  every  thinking  mind,  no  matter  whether  you 
regret  or  whether  you  applaud  while  you  admire. 

The  methods  by  which  it  was  accomplished  are  as 
engaging  as  they  are  instructive.  Their  interest  to  an 
American  will  increase  to  appreciation  when  he  reflects 
that  for  the  Philippines  we  paid  twenty  million  dollars 
before  beginning  our  occupation  of  the  islands,  and  have 
expended  hundreds  of  lives  and  many  millions  of  dollars 
sincethen.  To  the  Englishman,the  story  of  Russian  expan- 
sion in  Manchuria  should  teach  something  more  than  mere 
inflammatory  protest,  when  he  reflects  on  his  decades  of 
blunder  —  bloody  and  costly  blunder  —  in  learning  the 

10 


THE    RUvSSIAN    ADVANCE 

lessons  of  colonial  government  in  India.  To  the  German, 
with  his  declared  policy  of  Drang  nach  Osten,  and  the 
development  of  the  German  mixed  military-commercial- 
diplomatic  programme  in  Asia,  the  process  of  the  Rus- 
sianization  of  Manchuria  should  be  most  valuable.  To 
the  student  of  human  progress  everywhere  something  will 
be  presented  of  greater  moment  than  the  story  of  the 
civilizing  movements  of  races  in  the  past;  because  here 
is  the  historic  movement  of  a  race  in  the  present.  And, 
to  the  American  farmer,  to  the  American  manufacturer, 
to  the  American  producer  of  every  class  to  whom  the 
hard  and  practical  consideration  of  where  to  sell  his 
goods  has  become,  and  will  more  and  more  become,  the 
pressing  problem,  the  recent  occurrences  in  Manchuria 
are  of  immediate  importance. 

In  investigations  of  this  kind,  quite  as  much  as  in  the 
scientific  examination  of  any  subject,  we  must  reason 
back  from  the  smaller  facts  to  the  larger  ones,  and  from 
all  of  them  to  general  principles.  The  Baconian  system 
of  induction  is  the  only  scientific  method  of  thought  in 
the  science  of  States  as  well  as  in  the  science  of  matter. 
Let  us,  then,  begin  with  the  small  and  apparently  inci- 
dental observations  of  a  journey. 

First  of  all,  for  hundreds  of  miles  along  the  northern 
border  of  Manchuria  not  a  Chinaman  was  visible  two 
years  ago.  Three  years  ago,  Chinese  villages,  though  not 
numerous,  nevertheless  existed  on  the  southern  bank  of 
the  Amur.  To-day,  not  one  can  be  seen,  and  even  the 
ruins  of  only  one  can  be  detected  along  the  banks  of  that 
great  but  vexatious  waterway  of  northern  Asia.  But 
the  Cossack  is  there.  He  is  not  there  in  large  numbers. 
The  Cossack  is  never  in  any  place  in  large  numbers.  One 
Cossack  is  as  valuable  for  thrusting  forward  the  boun- 
daries of  Russian  dominion  as  a  hundred  ordinary  sol- 
diers; and  yet  the  Russian  ordinary  soldier  is  superb. 

But  the  Cossack  has  inherited  from  father  to  son. 
through  generations  running  back  for  hundreds  of  years, 

XX 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  instinct  of  the  frontier.  He  knows  intuitively  how 
to  inspire  with  fear  or  affection  the  senile  or  savage  tribes 
with  which  his  ancestors  have  for  centuries  been  coming 
in  contact.  He  impregnates  the  very  atmosphere  with 
the  authority  of  Russia.  And  so  not  many  of  him  are 
necessary,  and  not  many  of  him  are  used  along  these 
interminable  stretches  of  frontier  which  he  sentinels  and 
safeguards.  Sometimes  you  will  see  him  standing  alone, 
silently  gazing  at  you  from  the  Chinese  shore. 

Sometimes  you  will  see  him  with  two  or  three  com- 
rades. At  two  points  only  in  many  days'  journey  will 
you  find  a  larger  number  of  him  than  half  a  dozen  at  one 
single  place.  One  of  these  spots  is  opposite  Blago- 
vestchensk,  where,  in  1901,  a  hundred  Cossacks  were  en- 
camped; another  is  near  Aigun,  ten  miles  down  the  river, 
where  barracks  have  been  erected  on  the  Manchurian 
shore,  as  the  general  headquarters  of  the  entire  military 
of  that  region.  Without  further  than  noting  that  the 
northern  frontier  of  Manchuria  is  patrolled  by  Cossacks, 
let  us  pass  this  most  dramatic  figure  of  Russia  for  the 
present,  in  order  to  observe  him  more  adequately  here- 
after. 

Though  Russia's  natural  and  most  employed  road  into 
Manchuria  is  by  the  Sungari  River,  navigable  for  hun- 
dreds of  miles  from  the  Amur  into  the  interior,  the  real 
door  to  Manchuria  is  Nikolsk,  the  centre  of  the  grain- 
fields  to  the  north  of  Vladivostock.  It  is  over  fifty  miles 
from  the  Manchurian  frontier,  but  it  is  the  point  where  the 
Vladivostock  branch  of  the  Manchurian  railroad  joins  the 
Ussuri  railroad  into  Vladivostock.  You  will  find  Amer- 
ican ploughs,  reapers,  and  threshing-machines  for  sale 
in  Nikolsk.  It  is  the  local  commercial  centre  of  the 
district.  It  is  the  rendezvous  for  immense  military 
forces,  and  it  was  the  general  administrative  headquar- 
ters of  the  great  Manchurian  railway,  under  construction 
when  the  author  made  the  journey  through  Manchuria, 
and  now  completed. 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

"Yes,"  said  an  intelligent  Russian  commercial  man, 
referring  to  the  prairies  north  of  Vladivostock,  "these 
fields  were  all  once  occupied  by  Chinamen;  but  now,  as 
you  see,  they  are  as  fully  occupied  by  the  Russian  peasant, 
his  wife  and  children,  as  if  this  land  had  always  been  a  part 
of  Russia.  That  has  not  been  so  very  long  ago,  either. 
It  is  quite  impossible  to  explain  the  retirement  of  the 
Chinese.  There  was  no  friction  between  the  people  and 
the  Russian  peasant." 

This  singular  fact,  which  repeats  itself  in  many  differ- 
ent phases,  is  one  of  the  most  significant  truths  in  the 
peculiar  progress  of  Russian  expansion — "never  any  fric- 
tion between  the  Russian  and  the  native."  The  Russian 
moujik,  stupid  and  ignorant  man  and  ruinous  agricul- 
turist as  he  is,  yet  wins  his  fields  from  man  and  nature 
by  two  invariable  qualities — his  fixedness  to  the  soil  and 
the  stolidity  of  his  good-nature. 

The  merchant  who  pointed  out  the  fact  of  the  disap- 
pearance of  the  Chinaman  and  the  appearance  of  the 
Russian  agricultural  peasant  throughout  the  grain  dis- 
trict surrounding  Nikolsk  was  a  German.  That  is  a  fact 
which  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  Russian  problem  we 
are  examining,  but  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  general 
situation  of  the  Orient  and  the  world.  It  is  a  fact  to 
which  the  American  business  man  must  give  almost,  if 
not  quite,  as  great  attention  as  to  the  steady  advance  of 
Russian  influence  over  the  only  remaining  unexploited 
markets  of  the  world — the  markets  of  China.  The  princi- 
pal merchants  of  Nikolsk  are  German ;  the  principal  mer- 
chants of  Vladivostock  are  German;  the  principal  mer- 
chants of  Blagovestchensk  are  German.  In  the  heart  of 
Manchuria,  the  manager  of  one  of  the  commercial  estab- 
lishments which  supplies  the  railroad  with  provisions  of 
every  kind  was  a  young  German,  twenty -four  years  of 
age,  handsome  in  appearance,  American  in  alertness, 
brilliant  in  speech,  encyclopcedically  informed.  These 
are  no  accidental  illustrations.     All  over  the  Orient  they 

13 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

exist ;  all  over  Siberia  they  exist ;  all  over  the  world  they 
exist.  It  is  sufficient  for  the  moment  to  glance  at  this 
commercial  phenomenon  as  we  pass,  that  we  may  return 
to  it  with  the  seriousness  its  importance  deserves  when 
we  reach  it  later. 

About  Nikolsk  are  military  barracks  and  storehouses. 
Whatever  you  think  of  the  policy  and  character  you 
cannot  but  respect  the  power  and  strategical  far-sight- 
edness of  the  men  who  erected  on  this  spot  the  tremendous 
and  substantial  military  buildings  that  exist  there.  From 
Nikolsk,  Russia  can  pour  her  warriors  into  Manchuria, 
Korea.  Japan,  with  almost  equal  facility.  At  Nikolsk 
Russia's  martial  thousands  can  be  fed  more  easily  than 
elsewhere  in  her  Far  Eastern  dominions.  And  so  Nikolsk 
is  full  of  barracks.     And  these  barracks  are  full  of  soldiers. 

And  these  soldiers  are  drilling,  drilling,  always  drilling. 
Drilling,  that  is,  when  they  are  not  on  active  duty.  You 
may  drive  to  one  side  of  the  city  until  you  emerge  upon  a 
great  open,  surrounded  by  barracks  and  arsenals,  and  on 
every  side  there  is  preparation  —  practice.  From  one 
building  come  the  strains  of  music  of  a  military  band — 
it  is  practising.  From  another  a  company  of  white- 
capped  soldiers  are  issuing  and  falling  into  line — they  are 
practising.  Yonder  comes  the  artillery  with  all  the  haste 
of  battle — it  is  practising.  Scatter  and  skirmish  Une, 
close  order  for  cavalry  attack,  sudden  whirl  from  one 
position  to  another — all  the  evolutions  of  actual  fight  are 
before  your  eyes. 

But  where  is  that  stern  secrecy,  that  black  and  for- 
bidding hand  which  thrusts  the  observer  from  out  her 
gates  or  blindfolds  him  while  he  remains  inside,  which 
the  Anglo-Saxon  world  has  been  taught  to  associate  with 
Russia  and  all  things  Russian  ?  You  have  asked  no  per- 
mission to  drive  upon  this  field  of  Mars.  You  have  shown 
no  permit.  Yet  your  appearance  is  taken  quite  as  a 
matter  of  course.  Officers  attend  to  their  martial  duties 
vidthout   appearing  even  to  notice  you.     No  frowning 

14 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

policeman  asks  your  business.  No  polite  messenger  re- 
quests you  to  retire.  Observe  to  your  full;  make  notes 
to  your  full;   the  Russian  bear  is  very  clearly  asleep. 

But  to  find  out  whether  he  is  really  asleep  is  more 
valuable  even  than  the  privilege  of  undisturbed  observa- 
tion. Let  the  interpreter  take  pocket-camera  and  try 
to  photograph  them;  surely  that  will  be  forbidden.  But 
they  do  not  appear  to  notice  him.  Go  up  to  an  officer 
now,  call  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  you  have  a  camera, 
and  that  you  would  like  to  photograph  these  warlike 
manoeuvres,  these  throngs  of  soldiers,  these  barracks,  this 
astonishing  permanent  camp.  With  a  pleasant  smile  he 
tells  you  to  photograph  what  you  please  and  as  much  as 
you  please,  and  the  illusion  of  the  black  and  forbidding 
hand  begins  to  fade.  The  bear  is  not  sleeping  then;  so 
far  as  this  incident  reveals  him,  he  is  merely  a  very  good- 
natured,  a  very  sensible,  and  a  very  powerful  creature, 
whose  consciousness  of  his  power  makes  him  welcome 
your  observations,  and  smile  at  your  criticism  and  the 
world's. 

There  must  be  a  meaning  in  all  this.  But,  if  you  ask 
what  that  meaning  is — if  you  ask  why  all  these  prepara- 
tions, why  these  storehouses,  why  these  drilling  hosts — 
you  must  again  look  at  the  map  of  the  Far  East  and 
write  across  the  whole  of  it  the  words  of  Washington, 
"To  be  prepared  for  war  is  one  of  the  most  effectual 
means  of  preserving  peace,"  and  then  reflect  that, 
perhaps,  the  same  thought  has  occurred  to  Russian 
statesmen,  too.  Yes,  study  the  map  of  Asia,  and  run 
back  over  Russia's  far-sighted  and  patient  policy,  which 
has  always  looked  ahead  and  considered  the  needs  of  the 
Russian  people  a  century  beyond  the  immediate  moment, 
and  perhaps  an  explanation  will  spring  from  these  com- 
bined considerations. 


II 

RUSSIAN   EMPIRE-BUILDING   IN    MANCHURIA 

STRANGE  companies  were  they  that,  during  the  sum- 
mer of  1901,  proceeded  daily  from  Nikolsk  towards 
the  Manchurian  frontier;  strange  companies  that,  during 
the  same  period  and  for  three  or  four  years  before,  floated 
down  the  broad  and  treacherous  Amur.  But  that  is  an- 
other tale.  Going  into  Manchuria  from  Nikolsk,  the  ob- 
server might,  any  day  during  the  summer  of  1901,  have 
witnessed  Russian  soldiers,  of  course — not  in  troops  or 
companies,  but  in  twos  and  threes,  or  in  little  clumps  of 
a  dozen,  perhaps;  Russian  officers,  of  course;  here  and 
there  a  Chinaman;  and,  most  significant  of  all,  and  per- 
haps most  numerous  of  all,  the  wiry-framed,  contemp- 
tible-looking Koreans. 

And  you  are  struck  by  the  fact  (nay,  if  you  be  Anglo- 
Saxon,  you  are  startled  by  it)  that  all  of  this  mingled 
motley  of  humanity  get  along  in  perfect  harmony.  The 
bronzed  Korean,  the  queued  Chinaman,  and  the  blue- 
eyed,  yellow-haired  Russian  soldier  arrange  themselves 
on  an  open  flat-car  in  a  human  mosaic  of  mutual  agree- 
ableness.  There  is  no  race  prejudice  here  then!  Supe- 
rior to  all  the  world,  as  the  Russian  believes  himself,  he 
shows  no  offensive  manner  towards  the  other  races  with 
which  he  so  picturesquely  mingles.  It  is  a  thing  you 
must  have  noticed  up  in  Siberia,  where  the  Russian 
peasant  is  also  coming  in  contact  with  semi-Oriental 
peoples.  But,  with  the  blood  of  racial  bigotry  coursing 
through  your  veins,  here  this  social  fusion  of  races  startles 
you.     It  is  a  strange  page  suddenly  opened  before  you. 

16 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

And  it  is  a  page  you  will  read  again  and  again  every  day 
as  long  as  you  are  in  Manchuria.  And  from  a  reading 
of  it  a  lesson  may  be  learned,  and  part  of  Russia's  secret 
of  dominion  revealed. 

Grodekoff  is  the  name  of  the  pleasant  little  Russian 
town  which  stands  at  the  frontier  of  Manchuria,  so  styled 
in  honor  of  the  Governor-General.  Its  streets  are  broad 
— broad  as  the  streets  of  an  American  frontier  town.  Its 
surveying  is  regular — regular  again  as  that  of  an  Amer- 
ican town.  Common  features,  these,  of  Russian  towns 
with  American  towns.  But  for  the  speech  of  the  people, 
the  white-uniformed  oflficers,  and  the  touch  of  Orientalism 
which  every  cottage  suggests,  a  town  of  Russia  or  Siberia 
might  be  an  American  town;  and  this  is  repeated  on  the 
borders  of  Manchuria.  Civilization,  then,  is  pushing  for- 
ward by  forced  marches  into  northern  Asia.  You  can 
see  that  easily  enough;  for  here,  at  the  gates  of  Man- 
churia, near  a  region  which  ten  years  ago  was  the  haunt 
of  robbers,  are  a  modern  town,  modern  commerce,  mod- 
ern order,  and  that  modern  safety  which  comes  from 
regular  laws  regularly  enforced.  The  word  enforced  may 
be  repeated,  for,  with  all  his  defects,  and  he  has  many  of 
them,  the  Slav  administers  his  laws.  He  does  not  ad- 
minister them  brutally,  as  is  supposed,  nor  even  sternly, 
except  when  he  must. 

For  example,  under  the  electric  lights  of  the  railway 
station  at  Grodekoff  two  Chinamen  were  fighting  fiercely. 
Chinamen  are  very  quick  in  wrath,  and  fights  among  them 
are  frequent.  The  Russian  soldier  acting  as  policeman 
did  not  separate  them  with  bayonet,  did  not  use  a  club, 
or  even  a  whip.  He  sprang  forward,  and,  with  his  open 
hand,  slapped  one  of  the  Chinamen  on  the  cheek,  whirl- 
ing the  other  one  with  his  other  hand  away  from  his  fellow- 
rombatant.  That  was  all.  It  was  the  prompt  stopping 
of  a  row  that  might  have  ended  in  a  riot.  In  Hong-Kong 
or  other  English-governed  portions  of  China  a  cane  on 
the  back  of  a  Chinese  jinrikisha  man  who  insists  on  what 

2  I'J 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

is  thought  too  large  a  fee  is  a  common  occurrence.  On 
a  first  visit  to  the  Orient,  five  years  ago,  one  of  the  first 
European  business  men  of  the  Far  East,  in  the  presence 
of  ladies,  was  seen  caning  a  clump  of  Chinese  jinrikisha 
men  who  had  irritated  him  by  clamoring  for  his  patronage. 

But  inside  Manchuria  we  shall  surely  see  deeds  of  real 
cruelty,  for  we  all  know  that  Russia  is  establishing  her 
authority  there.  And  is  it  not  the  understanding  of 
every  one  that  Russia  plants  her  power  in  the  soil  of 
desolation  and  fertilizes  it  with  blood?  She  is  successful, 
however,  all  will  admit;  and,  since  she  is  gradually  ex- 
tending her  control  over  the  future  unoccupied  markets 
of  the  world,  it  is  interesting  to  observe  the  processes  by 
which  she  advances  her  influence. 

There  are  large  numbers,  and  of  various  nationalities, 
on  the  construction-train  which  through  the  night  creeps 
towards  the  Manchurian  frontier,  but  a  few  miles  away. 
You  do  not  understand  this,  for  has  not  every  one  heard 
that  Manchuria  was  "closed"  to  the  world  during  the 
period  of  railroad  building  and  military  settlement,  of  in- 
surrection and  disturbed  conditions  generally?  Still,  no- 
body has  been  put  off  the  train  as  yet.  To  be  sure,  scores 
of  Chinamen  are  doing  work  on  the  railway,  and  the 
other  scores  of  Koreans  appear  to  go  where  they  wish 
within  the  limits  of  Russian  authority.  All  these,  you 
are  informed,  are  being  conveyed  thither  for  particular 
purposes. 

But  there  are  other  people  on  that  train,  too.  Three 
men,  very  well  dressed,  of  some  foreign  nationality,  but 
certainly  not  Russian,  attract  your  attention.  There 
I  are  several  women,  too.  To  be  sure,  all  these  are  sitting 
on  the  railway  material  piled  on  the  flat-cars;  but,  never- 
theless, they  appear  to  be  going  right  into  Manchuria.  So 
this  forbidden  land  does  not  seem  to  be  so  very  much 
"closed"  after  all.  But  the  train  stops  at  a  point  where 
there  is  a  single  station  building;  high  hills,  which  in  the 
moonlight  seem   mountainous,  are  on  every  hand.     At 

i8 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

this  point  you  find  out  how  much  Manchuria  was  "closed  " 
during  1901;  for  every  human  being  not  especially 
authorized  to  proceed  is  ordered  from  every  car.  The 
protestations  of  the  well-dressed,  non-Russian  foreigners 
fall  on  deaf  ears.  The  pleas  of  the  women,  emphasized 
by  their  tears,  are  utterly  unheeded.  Off  they  go,  and 
there  in  the  night,  without  shelter,  they  are  left.  They 
should  have  remained  at  Grodekoff.  But  they  took  their 
chances  of  passing  unobserved  in  the  large  throng  through 
the  gates  of  Manchuria,  and  they  must  suffer  the  conse- 
quences. 

Men  who  were  apparently  foremen  of  the  Chinese  seem 
to  be  marshalling  their  groups  of  men  and  answering  for 
them.  Others  do  the  same  for  the  Russian  peasant  work- 
men. The  soldiers  pass,  as  a  matter  of  course.  But  every 
one  else  is  ejected  in  a  very  business-like  and  very  rough, 
perhaps  though  not  unkind,  manner.  Upon  the  refusal 
of  one  person  to  get  off,  he  is  peremptorily  thrown  off  by 
a  Cossack.  Another  person  had  hidden  himself  in  one 
of  a  pile  of  great  drainage-pipes  with  which  a  certain  car 
was  loaded.  He  was  located  by  a  soldier  who  was  en- 
gaged in  finding  just  such  stowaways  by  thrusting  his 
gun,  with  bayonet  fixed,  into  every  one  of  those  drainage- 
pipes.  Clearly,  the  Russians  did  not  intend  to  take  any 
chances  on  having  their  work  in  Manchuria  disturbed  by 
unknown  persons  going  into  that  land  at  a  time  when 
they  were  settling  its  disturbed  conditions  and  con- 
structing their  great  steel  highway. 

And  when  you  reflect  upon  the  reign  of  terror  which 
the  Boxer  uprising  had  spread  all  over  Manchuria,  and 
the  difficulty  which  had  thus  been  caused  the  Russians, 
your  disapproval  of  this  policy  of  "closing  Manchuria  to 
the  world"  was  softened.  They  could  hardly  be  blamed 
for  taking  every  precaution  to  prevent  the  agents  of 
those  who  wished  to  stir  up  further  disorder  from  enter- 
ing the  very  region  where  the  Russians  were  bending 
every  energy  to  restore  order,  and  restore  it  permanently. 

19 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

This  incident,  however,  does  not  diminish  your  apprehen- 
sions as  to  what  you  will  see  in  Manchuria. 

But,  in  spite  of  your  sanguinary  expectations,  the  first 
thing  that  strikes  you  in  the  first  beautiful  valley  through 
which  you  go,  after  you  enter  Manchuria,  is  cultivated 
fields  and  peaceful  people.  In  China  itself  you  will  not 
observe  greater  liberty  of  action  among  an  industrious 
population.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Chinamen  who  have 
returned  to  their  fields  are  enjoying  a  peace  and  un- 
disturbedness  of  industry  never  heard  of  before  in  this 
part  of  Manchuria. 

Chinese  towns  are  organized  filthiness.  They  are  quite 
impossible  of  description.  The  streets  are  rambling  and 
sickening;  in  rainy  weather  they  are  miry,  with  a  slime 
compounded  from  all  the  elements  that  might  offend 
both  sight  and  smell.  You  see  mixtures  being  made  on 
the  soil  in  front  of  Chinese  shops  and  stores  in  the  ordinary 
Chinese  commercial  town  (not  in  the  great  cities,  although 
these  are  hideous  enough,  as  the  ordinary  traveller  will 
tell  you,  nor  yet  in  mere  rural  villages)  which  will  nause- 
ate you  if  you  do  not  pass  by  rapidly.  The  shops  are 
poor  structures  of  wood  and  earth;  the  homes  themselves 
are  of  mud.  This  is  the  kind  of  town  you  will  see  all  over 
Manchuria,  and  this  the  town  you  will  see  all  over  China. 

But  side  by  side  with  it  in  Manchuria  you  will  behold 
something  that  you  did  not  see  in  China — something  so 
surprising  that  it  seems  almost  unreal.  And,  indeed,  it 
is  a  miracle — a  modern  European  town  planted  adjacent 
to  the  congeries  of  hovels  which  comprise  the  Chinese 
towns  just  described.  Brick  buildings  of  substantial 
construction  and  not  uninviting  architecture  stand 
completed,  and  others  are  rising  by  their  side.  Broad 
streets,  regularly  laid  out  —  not  paved  yet,  of  course, 
for  the  town  itself  is  only  building  —  but  streets  with 
gutters  along  the  sides  and  with  hard-beaten  gravel  cov- 
ering convex  surface,  and  in  far  better  condition  than  the 
Streets  of  most  of  the  cities  of  modern  Russia. 

20 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

It  may  be  that  the  attractiveness  of  the  Russian  towns 
in  process  of  erection  in  Manchuria  in  1901  was  unduly 
magnified  by  the  hideousness  of  the  native  villages  reek- 
ing with  offensiveness  which  stood  by  their  side.  It  may 
be,  too,  that  the  newness  of  the  Russian's  handiwork 
added  an  element  of  charm  not  permanently  belonging 
to  it,  or  that  the  atmosphere  of  pioneer  occupation  and 
achievement  deflected  accurate  and  steady  judgment; 
but  one  can  only  set  down  exactly  what  one  sees  at  the 
time  he  sees  it,  and  certain  it  is  that  Russian  town-build- 
ing in  Manchuria  in  1901  was  a  comfort  and  a  delight  to 
behold. 

It  is  more  than  a  hundred  miles  into  Manchuria  that 
you  encounter  this  striking  material  evidence  of  the  Rus- 
sianization  of  the  country — a  Russian  town  being  built 
side  by  side  with  the  decaying,  germ-infected  collection 
of  hovels  which  compose  the  Chinese  town.  The  resi- 
dences of  this  Russian  town  are  of  wood  perhaps,  or  stone, 
as  taste  determines.  They  are  pleasant  to  look  upon, 
too.  Indeed,  the  homes  of  merchant  or  miner  or  officer, 
or  even  of  moujik  in  Siberia  are  often  much  handsomer 
than  those  ordinarily  occupied  by  the  same  class  in 
Russia ;  and  it  would  seem  that  this  comparative  superior- 
ity is  to  be  repeated  in  Manchuria.  Generous  verandas 
circle  the  home  of  a  railway  official ;  cool  awnings  of  blue, 
shifting  with  the  sun,  protect  these  porches  from  its  rays. 
Young  trees  are  planted  along  the  new-made  streets. 
Occasionally  a  block  is  reserved  for  a  miniature  park; 
and,  again,  there  are  trees  fresh  planted,  and  the  color 
and  fragrance  of  flowers.  This,  in  contrast,  is  the  order, 
the  loveliness,  the  system,  the  cleanliness  which  Russia 
in  Manchuria  is  building  over  against  Chinese  aggre- 
gations of  corruption,  disease,  disorder,  and  all  unsight- 
liness.  If  the  Russian  is  uncivilized,  as  it  has  been  the 
fashion  to  declare,  at  least  in  Manchuria  he  is  erecting 
precisely  those  very  things  which,  in  America,  we  look 
upon  as  the  results  and  proofs  of  civilization. 

21 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

You  go  into  the  Chinese  town  and  ask  for  food.  It  is 
there  in  abundance,  but  you  will  not  eat  it.  There  is 
nothing  familiar,  nothing  appetizing,  nothing  that  sug- 
gests the  food  products  of  America.  But  you  will  find  a 
European  restaurant  in  the  Russian  town,  and  there  you 
may  have  what  you  like ;  quite  as  much,  indeed,  as  you  can 
get  in  an  American  town  of  ten  times  its  size — bread 
made  from  American  flour,  American  sugar-cured  ham, 
American  canned  fruits  from  the  Pacific  coast,  and  so 
forth.  If  you  will  go  up  the  street  to  the  Russian  store, 
you  will  find  American  salmon  from  the  Columbia, 
American  canned  meats  from  the  Central  West,  and 
American  condensed  milk  and  cream  from  Illinois. 

Clearly,  American  trade  in  Manchuria  does  not,  as  yet, 
seem  to  have  been  injured  by  this  Russian  invasion.  If 
conditions  could  only  continue  as  to  the  American  ob- 
server they  presented  themselves  in  1901,  none  of  us 
could  find  cause  for  commercial  alarm  at  the  sight  of  the 
Russian  flag  in  Manchuria,  for  it  appears  to  the  investiga- 
tor who  has  in  mind  America's  commercial  interests 
that,  for  the  moment  at  least,  American  markets  have 
been  increased  by  the  forward  movement  of  the  Musco- 
vite in  Asia.  It  does  not  accord  with  our  former  notion, 
of  course,  but  there  is  the  fact,  and  it  is  from  facts  that 
we  must  reason  to  theories,  and  not  from  theories  that 
we  must  reason  to  facts.  It  is  a  fact — deceptive,  perhaps, 
and  misleading,  maybe — but  such  as  it  is,  it  is  there. 

"Why  should  you  be  astonished  at  these  signs  of 
peaceful  activity?"  said  a  Russian  officer.  "Why,  man! 
peaceful  activity  is  what  we  are  after.  Our  soldiers  clear 
the  way  for  our  families;  they  create  conditions  which 
make  roads  possible,  towns  possible,  commerce  possible. 
We  have  our  notion  of  civilization;  we  think  it  is  as 
good  as  yours,  and  you  must  admit  that  in  its  external 
features  it  is  very  like  your  own.  The  soldier  helps 
to  make  it  for  the  people  of  Russia;  the  people  of  Rus- 
sia do  not  make  it  for  the  soldier."     And  much  more  to 

22 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  same  meaningful  purport.  "And,"  he  added,  with 
a  trace  of  bitterness,  "we  do  not  march  up  and  down 
with  torch  and  sword,  slaying,  pillaging,  desolating.  That 
is  not  our  purpose.  What  good  would  that  do  us  or 
anybody?  And  yet  that  is  the  story  which  animosity 
tells  of  us.  We  have  been  misrepresented  so  long  that 
we  are  used  to  it  and  are  silent  before  it." 

It  is  not  intended  in  this  noting  of  Russian  peaceful 
activities  to  minimize  the  soldier  in  Manchuria.  He  is 
there,  and  there  in  large  numbers.  He  is  there  with  his 
gun,  with  bayonet  always  fixed  (it  is  a  singular  circum- 
stance, and  more  typical  of  Russia  than  any  one  fact  I 
can  select,  that  the  Russian  bayonet  is  always  fixed). 
But  the  Russian  soldier  is  in  Manchuria,  not  with  rifle 
and  sword  only,  but  with  shovel,  and  pickaxe,  and  adz, 
and  all  the  implements  of  toil,  as  indeed  is  the  case  in 
Siberia  and  in  Russia  itself;  for  the  Russian  soldier  is 
more  of  a  laboring  man,  after  all,  than  he  is  a  military 
man.  He  digs  and  builds  and  plants  far  more  than  he 
fights.  Russian  soldiers  were  seen  digging  a  drain  on  the 
grounds  of  the  excellent  museum  which  Grodekoff  has 
erected  at  Khabaroff. 

Yes,  the  soldier  is  there,  and  his  bayonet  is  there,  and 
the  shot  which  means  death  is  there.  But  though  all 
these  signs  are  present  in  Manchuria,  they  are,  combined, 
but  the  single  crimson  thread  of  the  fabric  of  empire 
which  Russia  is  weaving  throughout  that  mighty  domain. 
The  martial  note  is  not  dominant.  The  thud  of  axe  in 
forest  and  thump  of  drill  in  quarry,  the  grating  swish  of 
the  mixing  mortar,  the  click  of  mason's  trowel  on  bricks 
of  rapidly  rising  walls,  the  drone  of  the  saw,  and  the  drum 
of  hammer  from  one  end  of  Manchuria  to  the  other — 
these  are  the  sounds  which  greet  you. 

Again  and  yet  again  you  are  impressed  with  this — the 
Russian  soldier  in  Manchuria  is  a  laboring  man  first  and 
a  military  man  afterwards.  It  is  an  item  not  to  be  over- 
looked— indeed,  the  Russian  soldier  must  be  most  care- 

22> 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

fully  considered  by  those  who  are  estimating  the  forces 
influencing  the  world  at  present.  No  toil  is  too  heavy 
for  him;  no  hardship  is  to  him  a  hardship  at  all.  He  will 
fell  trees,  excavate  ditches,  build  houses  with  the  same 
good  -  humor  with  which  he  will  go  into  action  where 
wounds  and  death  are  his  sure  reward. 

In  Manchuria  there  are  three  classes  of  the  Russian 
soldier:  the  Cossack  first,  then  the  railway -guard,  and 
then  numbers  of  that  host  of  which  the  Russian  army  is 
composed,  the  common  soldier  of  the  empire.  The  rail- 
way-guards are  of  first  importance  in  this  connection, 
because  they  are  the  second  visible  instrument  of  the 
Russianization  of  this  dominion,  the  first  visible  instru- 
ment being,  of  course,  the  railway  itself.  But,  having 
the  railway,  it  becomes  necessary  to  guard  it,  and  that 
not  for  to-day  or  to-morrow,  but  so  long  as  danger  exists; 
and  of  the  existence  or  probability  of  danger  to  her  in- 
vestment Russia  herself,  of  course,  will  insist  upon  being 
the  judge. 

Therefore  in  Manchuria  there  are  tens  of  thousands  of 
railway-guards.  In  1901  the  railway-guards  with  which 
Russia  was  protecting  her  railway  construction  formed  a 
military  force  of  sixty  thousand  men.  M.  Leroy-Beau- 
lieu  estimated  that  there  were  this  number  in  Manchuria 
early  in  1900.  In  certain  particulars  they  are  picked  men. 
To  a  man,  they  are  large  men  physically;  almost  to  a 
man,  they  are  below  thirty  years  of  age.  Man  for  man, 
they  are  of  higher  intelligence  and  greater  ability  than 
either  Cossack  or  common  soldier,  and,  without  exception, 
share  with  Cossack  and  common  soldier  the  characteristic 
Russian  indifference  to  danger  and  death.  All  soldier, 
each  of  them,  and  yet  all  farmer,  each  of  them,  and,  by  the 
same  token,  men  of  all  work  at  your  service,  are  these 
permanent  makers  of  empire.  Every  man  of  them  who 
is  married  has  his  wife  with  him  and  his  children  and 
all  his  earthly  possessions.  Every  man  who  is  not  mar- 
ried is  thinking  of  getting  married ;  and  one  cannot  resist 

24 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  feeling  that  in  its  unseen  and  tactful  way  the  govern- 
ment is  encouraging  each  bachelor  guard  who  sentinels 
the  railway  in  Manchuria  to  take  to  himself  one  of  those 
round-cheeked,  broad-backed,  deep-breasted  peasant  girls 
of  Russia. 

The  Russian  women  in  the  interior  of  Manchuria  are 
wives  of  those  hearty,  wholesome-looking,  bearded  giants, 
the  railway-guards.  Even  at  the  dangerous  period,  when 
the  journe}^  was  taken  which  these  chapters  chronicle, 
and  at  points  hundreds  of  versts  in  the  interior,  these 
women-mates  of  Russia's  workingmen-soldiers  were  seen 
at  the  scarce-erected  stations  of  the  railroad  which  was 
then  being  constructed.  They  were  there  selling  milk  or 
melons  or  berries  or  quass  (a  non-intoxicating  Russian 
drink  made  out  of  black  bread  or  berries).  So  far 
have  Russian  and  Siberian  conditions  reproduced  them- 
selves in  Manchuria  that  the  only  difference  observed 
at  the  railway -stations  was  the  unfinished  nature  of 
the  road  and  the  increasing  number  of  Koreans  and 
Chinese. 

For  the  Russian  peasant  is  there,  as  he  is  in  western 
Siberia,  and  the  Russian  peasant's  wife  is  there,  as  she  is 
in  Siberia,  and  the  little,  white-haired  children,  with  the 
pale-blue  eye  of  the  Slav,  are  there,  as  they  are  in  Siberia; 
and,  as  in  Siberia  and  Russia,  the  little  girls  from  eight 
to  twelve  are  universally  carrying  in  their  arms  infant 
brothers  and  sisters  of  as  many  months  or  even  weeks, 
for  Russian  children  are  being  born  in  Manchuria.  And 
a  land  where  a  people's  dead  are  buried,  where  a  people's 
children  are  born,  becomes  to  that  people  sacred  soil. 
Russian  homes,  not  for  railway  official  only,  but  for  the 
"peasant  guard,"  are  springing  up  throughout  Man- 
churia. Manchurian  fields  are  being  languidly  cultivated 
by  Russian  hands.  It  is  all  quite  "temporary,"  of  course; 
you  can  read  it  for  yourself  in  the  treaty.  And,  besides, 
the  railway-guard's  term  of  enlistment  —  or,  rather,  his 
contract — is  for  only  five  years.     But  the  Slav  root  strikes 

25 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

quickly  into  new  soil,  and  having  struck,  history  tells 
us  that,  usually,  it  stays. 

And  so  it  is  that,  gradually,  naturally,  physically, 
plausibly,  with  appearance  of  entire  good  faith  (not  that 
it  is  denied  that  it  is  good  faith),  the  master-mind  that 
has  planned  this  extraordinary  semi-conquest  of  territory 
has  provided  the  elements  of  permanent  occupation  and 
unbreakable  control,  should  that  course  later  appear  to 
be  dictated  by  events.  For  your  Russian  statesman  is 
a  great  consulter  of  events,  and  so  is  every  public  man 
who  deserves  that  large  title — statesman. 

The  land  occupied  by  the  Manchurian  railway-guards 
and  their  families  is  only,  so  far  as  could  be  found  in  1901, 
along  the  northeastern  and  northwestern  portions  of  the 
railway.  It  was  vacant  land.  There  was  no  external 
evidence  of  its  having  been  previously  occupied.  A 
gentleman  connected  with  the  Chinese  telegraph  service, 
and  familiar  with  every  foot  of  Manchuria,  said  that 
many  tens  of  thousands  of  acres  of  fertile  land  in  Man- 
churia have  not  been  occupied  within  his  recollection, 
and  his  personal  observation  extended  back  over  a  period 
of  forty  years.  It  was  a  strange  state  of  affairs.  But  one 
explanation  exists,  and  that  only  partially  accounts  for  it. 
That  explanation  is  that  all  eastern  and  northeastern 
Manchuria  was  so  terrorized  by  the  robber  bands  which 
for  more  than  a  century  have  had  free  hand  there  that 
the  farmer,  trader,  and  merchant  abandoned  the  soil. 
In  lower  Manchuria  the  robbers  had,  up  to  the  time  of  the 
Russian  occupation,  licensed  commerce  so  as  not  to  kill  the 
goose  that  lays  the  golden  eggs  for  them,  as  their  un- 
restrained outrages  did  in  the  territory  now  referred  to. 
It  is  on  this  land,  from  which  the  inhabitants  have  long 
ago  been  driven  by  fear,  that  you  may  find  the  families  of 
the  Russian  railway-guard  established. 

"How  much  land  do  each  of  you  have?"  was  asked  of 
one  of  them. 

"All  we  can  use.    And  why  not?    This  is  nobody's  land." 

26 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

And  so  it  is.  One  of  the  most  inviting  valleys  within 
the  length  and  breadth  of  Manchuria  was  found  to  be 
uninhabited  and  with  little  trace  that  it  had  been  in- 
habited within  recent  times.  And  yet  that  valley  is  a 
natural  granary.  Climate  and  soil  make  it  equal,  for 
agricultural  purposes,  to  any  part  of  the  United  States, 
and  its  charming  frame  of  mountains,  which,  when  you 
reach  them,  you  find  to  rise  abruptly  from  the  level  plain, 
gives  to  this  natural  home  of  industry  an  engaging  and 
varied  beauty. 

We  are  now  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  into  the 
interior  of  Manchuria.  We  find  it  rapidly  undergoing 
the  same  process  with  which  we  in  the  Philippines  were, 
with  so  much  difficulty,  engaged;  with  which  Germany  in 
Shan-Tung,  with  so  much  outlay  of  wealth,  is  engaged; 
with  which  England  in  South  Africa  was  engaged  with 
blood  and  bayonet,  and  burning  villages,  and  conquer- 
ing hosts,  and  ruinous  expenditure,  and  dissolving  pres- 
tige. We  are  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  into  Manchuria, 
which  is  being  Russianized  under  our  very  eyes;  and  the 
soldier  appears,  as  yet,  to  be  the  least  important  instru- 
ment of  dominion.  Thus  far  the  Russian  elements  of 
empire  seem  to  be  brick  and  mortar,  shovel  and  wagon, 
quarry  and  wall,  houses  and  homes,  women  and  children, 
order  and  system. 

And  now,  piled  up  by  the  side  of  the  temporary  track 
(one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  into  the  interior,  mind  you), 
you  behold  another  Russian  element  of  empire.  It  is  a 
great,  white  monument,  covered  with  canvas.  It  is  im- 
portant that  you  should  know  what  this  is,  for  the 
traveller  soon  acquires  the  instinctive  understanding  that 
things  vital  and  full  of  meaning  must  be  looked  for  in  the 
incidental  and  occasional.  Some  Chinamen,  at  an  officer's 
request,  remove  the  canvas  which  conceals  this  great  pile, 
and  you  find  that  this  monument  of  Russian  progress  in 
Manchuria  is  built  of  five  thousand  sacks  of  American 
flour.     It  is  a  strange  feeling  which  steals  over  you  when 

27 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

you  read  on  the  sacks  the  name  of  the  mills  and  the  name 
of  the  State,  "Washington,  U.  S.  A." — a  strange  feeling 
and  a  sense  of  confusion,  for  you  are  in  Manchuria,  that 
forbidden  land,  that  region  concealed  from  the  eyes  of  the 
remainder  of  the  world  by  black  clouds  of  terrible  rumor. 
But  you  have  beheld  nothing  thus  far  but  peace  and 
industry;  and  perhaps  an  idea  steals  imperceptibly  over 
your  mind  that  you  have  been  mistaken  in  your  under- 
standing of  Russian  methods  of  expansion.  At  all  events, 
one  thought  repeats  itself  in  your  mind,  whether  you  will 
or  no,  and  that  thought  is  that  here,  with  all  the  outward 
necessaries  of  civilized  life  about  you,  among  which  are 
five  thousand  sacks  of  American  flour  from  Washington, 
U.  S.  A.,  you  stand  in  perfect  security,  where  ten  years 
ago  you  probably  would  have  been  murdered  by  bands  of 
brigands. 

Chinese  working-men  were  building  the  railroad.  There 
were  hundreds  of  them,  thousands  of  them,  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  them.  Let  us  bring  them  before  the  eye.  They 
are  busy  constructing  grades,  not  with  horses  and  scrapers 
and  all  of  our  modem  labor-saving  devices,  but  each  man 
bearing  two  baskets  of  earth  (each  basket  at  the  end  of 
a  bamboo  pole  across  his  shoulders),  from  where  it  is 
dug  in  the  cut  to  where  it  is  emptied  on  the  fill.  These 
Chinese  laborers  look  good-humored;  they  appear  well 
fed;  they  give  all  the  evidences  of  happiness  and  con- 
tentment. They  laugh  at  you,  joke  with  you,  say  things 
to  you  rough  and  unrepeatable,  but  yet  kindly  a^id 
without  meaning  to  offend. 

They  are  at  work  on  buildings,  too.  Excellent  masons 
they  make;  and  above  all  superb  stone-cutters.  In  this 
last  occupation  their  patience  is  invaluable.  You  cannot 
imagine  how  independent  they  are.  It  is  said  that  the 
railroad  company  experienced  a  serious  difficulty  at  one 
time  because  the  Chinese  laborers  struck.  These  laborers 
were  paid  eighty  copecks  a  day  in  winter  and  sixty 
copecks  a  day  in  summer  (two  copecks  make  a  cent  of  our 

28 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

money).  Such  wages  were  never  heard  of  before  in  this, 
or,  indeed,  any  portion  of  China.  It  is  many,  many  times 
the  pay  of  the  Russian  ordinary  common  soldier,  and 
almost  equals  the  pay  of  the  Russian-Manchurian  railway- 
guard.  It  was  too  heavy  a  drain  upon  the  railway  re- 
sources, and  in  the  summer  of  1901  the  company  at- 
tempted to  reduce  the  wages  to  forty  copecks  a  day. 

One  hundred  thousand  Chinamen  and  more  instantly 
quit  work.  The  alternative  was  presented  to  the  govern- 
ment of  restoring  the  former,  and  as  the  Russians  thought 
exorbitant,  wages  or  abandoning  work  upon  the  road. 
The  men  won;  the  wages  were  restored  and  work  was 
resumed.  Astonishing,  is  it  not?  —  a  strike  of  Chinese 
laborers  in  Manchuria,  and  a  successful  one.  Undoubtedly 
the  desire  to  hurry  the  railroad  to  completion,  the  utter 
absence  of  all  labor  but  Chinese  labor,  and,  lastly,  the 
care  exercised  by  the  Russians  not  to  offend  a  people  they 
have  subdued,  influenced  the  railway  company  to  yield 
to  the  demand  of  the  Chinese  laborers.  For  such  a 
strike  in  Russia  itself  would  be  put  down  by  bayonet  and 
ball. 

All  of  these  Chinese  laborers,  as  before  remarked, 
seemed  contented  and  happy.  They  were  found,  among 
other  things,  building  a  church  in  the  new  town  of 
Hmanpo,  two  hundred  miles  into  Manchuria.  And  these 
same  men  only  a  year  before  were  Boxers,  frenzied 
fanatics,  butchering  without  mercy  man,  woman,  and 
child,  slaying  even  their  own  kind  who  refused  them 
active  aid.  It  is  a  method  worth  considering — that  of 
changing  these  furies,  these  demons  (for  such  only  twelve 
moixths  before  they  were),  into  peaceful  and  happy 
laborers,  apparently  not  only  pleased  with  their  lot,  but, 
as  it  seemed  to  the  looker  on,  rejoicing  in  it. 

What,  then,  is  that  method?  It  is  the  simple  and  tra- 
ditional method  of  Russia  to  strike  when  you  strike,  and 
to  spare  not  when  you  are  striking.  It  is  to  wage  war 
while  war  exists,  and  to  employ  the  methods  of  peace 

29 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

only  when  war  is  over.  Skobeleff  at  Goek  Tepe  refused 
to  accept  the  surrender  of  the  heroic  Tepens,  who  had 
terrorized  Central  Asia  for  centuries,  and  he  slaughtered 
more  than  twenty  thousand  men,  women,  and  children  in 
twenty  days.  (The  siege  lasted  exactly  twenty  days, 
and  Skobeleff's  estimate  of  the  number  slain  is  twenty 
thousand.)  It  seemed  quite  terrible,  and  was  as  terrible 
as  it  seemed;  but  it  is  hard  to  see  that  it  is  much  worse 
to  destroy  twenty  thousand  men,  women,  and  children 
in  twenty  days  and  secure  peace  for  all  time  than  it  is  to 
kill  that  number  during  twenty  years,  and  in  the  process 
increase  the  irritation,  the  disorder,  and  the  feud.  For 
from  the  red  day  of  Goek  Tepe  to  this  hour,  order,  law, 
safety  to  traveller,  security  of  commerce,  and  all  other 
things  which  help  to  make  up  civilization,  have  existed 
in  Central  Asia,  as  firmly  guarded  as  they  are  in  the 
United  States.  War  is  bad  under  any  circumstances, 
but  if  it  must  be  it  should  be  thorough,  that  it  may  be 
brief  and  not  fruitless. 

And  so  in  Manchuria,  when  the  great  Boxer  uprising 
began  (and  it  began  in  Manchuria  with  the  historic  attack 
on  Blagovestchensk),  the  smiling  Russian,  with  his  mild 
blue  eye  and  his  kindly  bearing,  became,  in  truth,  what 
rumor  pictures  him  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  world — a  man  of 
the  sword  and  of  blood.  Russia  was  caught  unprepared. 
The  diabolism  of  some  of  the  massacres  by  the  Boxers 
does  not  admit  of  description ;  but  Grodekoff  at  Khaba- 
roff,  Chichagoff  at  Vladivostock,  and  Alexieff  at  Port 
Arthur  poured  every  available  man  into  Manchuria. 
Five  Russian  divisions  entered  from  different  points, 
and,  sweeping  all  before  them,  converged  upon  Kirin. 
It  was  fire  and  sword  and  death.  It  was  war.  There  were 
no  attempts  to  pacify  or  cajole  while  villages  were  burning. 
While  the  conditions  of  war  lasted,  Russia  waged  war. 
And  she  waged  no  "milk-and-water"  war;  she  waged 
a  war  of  blood.  And  when  she  had  finished,  she  had 
finished,  indeed,  just   as   everywhere   Russia's  task  has 

30 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

been  finished  when  once  she  has  conckided  a  border 
conflict. 

For  it  is  worth  the  attention  of  all  men  that  when 
Russia  has  once  inflicted  her  punishment  there  has  seldom 
been  any  recurrence  of  insurrection.  Where  Russian  law 
and  order  and  system  have  been  established  they  have 
remained,  upheld  not  by  the  bayonets  of  the  soldiers 
who  established  them,  but  by  the  hands  of  the  very 
people  among  whom  and  against  whose  resistance  they 
were  planted.  Among  all  the  defects  of  Russia's  civiliza- 
tion, its  virtues  are  striking  and  elemental,  and  one  of 
the  chief  of  these  is  stability. 

And  so  in  Manchuria,  thousands  of  men,  who  bear  on 
their  foreheads  the  scar  which  distinguishes  the  Boxer 
of  the  most  ultra  type  (for,  it  is  said,  the  radical,  de- 
termined, genuine  fanatic  wears  a  peculiar  scar  made  in 
the  forehead  next  to  where  the  hair  begins  to  grow)  are 
now  smiling,  chaffing,  even  jolly  laboring-men  upon  the 
Russian  railroad,  constructors  of  Russian  buildings,  and, 
most  striking  of  all  in  its  antitheses,  the  builders  even 
of  a  Russian  church;  for  among  the  working-men  who 
were  building  this  church  at  Hmanpo  were  several  Box- 
ers. Thev  confessed  it  cheerfully.  "Why  not?  Every- 
body did  it!"  said  one  young  former  Boxer  to  the  in- 
terpreter. Oh  yes;  everybody  did  it!  Also,  everybody 
knew,  too,  that  they  never  would  be  Boxers  again,  or 
anything  else  but  the  loyal  adherents  of  Russia.  They 
understand  her  now.  They  understand  that  she  is  not 
to  be  trifled  with,  and  that  whoever  touches  Russian 
authority  with  violent  hands  has  seized  the  currents  of 
certain  death.  And,  equally  important,  they  understand 
that  with  Russia,  when  war  is  over,  it  is  over,  and  that  a 
kindly  treatment,  as  natural,  unobtrusive,  pleasing  as  if 
they  and  the  Slav  had  always  dwelt  together,  is  the  char- 
acteristic of  Russia  and  the  Russian  in  time  of  peace,  as 
death  without  mercy  is  the  characteristic  of  Russia  and 
the  Russian  in  time  of  war. 

31 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

For  here  again  you  are  dazed  by  that  phenomenon 
which  startled  you  at  Nikolsk  and  attracted  your  atten- 
tion with  less  sharpness  in  Trans-Baikal  Siberia:  that 
Russian  peasant  and  Chinese  working-man  and  Korean 
laborer  mingle  together  as  though  they  were  all  of  one 
race,  one  blood,  one  faith,  and  even  of  one  nationality. 
It  is  a  phenomenon  to  which  attention  will  be  called  again 
and  again,  because  it  is  fundamental;  because  it  is  one 
of  the  profound  elements  of  Russia's  power  in  Asia,  with 
its  curious  causes  running  far  back  into  Russian  history 
and  character. 


Ill 

OTHER    METHODS    OF    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

GREAT  railways  through  the  heart  of  Manchuria, 
with  bridges,  Roman  in  their  massiveness,  with 
heavy  grades  and  deep  cuts,  with  buildings  for  engines 
and  equipment  solid  as  fortresses — all  this  looks  as  if 
Russia  intends  to  remain  in  Manchuria  (and,  by  the  same 
token,  all  of  this  appears  to  indicate  that  Russia  thinks 
Manchuria  quite  valuable).  Brick  and  stone  buildings, 
homes  of  officials,  cottages  of  peasants,  the  blond  wives 
of  a  majority  of  the  sixty  thousand  railroad-guards;  the 
tow-headed  children  brought  with  their  parents,  and  the 
still  younger  ones  bom  on  the  soil  of  Manchuria  itself 
— all  these  things  indicate  permanency  of  Russian  oc- 
cupation. And,  above  all,  Russian  churches,  raising 
their  semi-Oriental  spires  to  heaven  in  the  centre  of  every 
Russian  town,  point  to  permanency  of  Russian  occupa- 
tion. 

Let  us  not  pass  so  hurriedly  these  Russian  churches 
which  former  Boxers  are  building,  not  by  compulsion, 
but  for  wages,  in  Manchuria;  for  with  the  Russian 
Church  the  Russian  priest  has  arrived  in  Manchuria,  too. 
He  is  not  there  in  droves  or  flocks  or  communities  of 
monks.  He  is  there  only  very  occasionally  and  very  un- 
obtrusively. He  acts  the  part  of  the  apostle  of  peace — 
and  he  looks  the  part.  Clad  in  a  long  robe  of  black,  his 
blond  hair  combed  straight  back  from  his  forehead  and 
falling  in  picturesque  masses  of  yellow  curls  on  his  sombre- 
clad  shoulders,  his  abundant  golden  beard  covering  half 
his  breast,  his  mild  blue  eyes  full  of  languid  benevolence, 
3  33 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  Russian  priest  in  Manchuria  is  a  circumstance  as 
soothing  as  it  is  picturesque. 

He  appears  to  be  attending  only  to  the  orthodox 
Russian  flock  of  his  Church.  There  is  no  irritating  zeal 
for  converts  manifested  by  the  priest  which  the  national 
Church  of  Russia  sends  to  her  frontier.  He  is  in  no 
feverish  hurry  to  convert  the  heathen.  It  is  not  necessary 
'for  him  to  be  in  a  hurry.  Seemingly — perhaps  really — 
he  respects  the  religious  opinions  of  those  among  whom 
he  is  placed,  as  highly  as  he  wishes  them  to  respect  his 
religious  opinions.  He  is  apparently  very  tolerant.  A 
Mohammedan  mosque  does  not  offend  the  Russian  priest, 
a  Chinese  temple  does  not  offend  him.  Nothing  in  the 
faith  of  others  offends  him.  To  the  unconverted,  to  the 
followers  of  other  religions,  he  is  all  consideration  and 
courtesy  and  sweet  agreeableness.  Above  all,  he  does 
not  debate,  contend,  argue. 

And  yet  the  Russian  Church,  with  methods  such  as 
these,  succeeds  in  gathering  communities,  provinces, 
tribes,  and  peoples  within  her  fold.  It  is  done  by  the 
combined  influence  of  those  thousand  incidentals  which, 
united,  are  so  irresistible  in  human  thought  and  feeling. 
The  beautiful  service  of  the  Russian  Church;  the  semi- 
Oriental  adoration  of  even  the  most  highly  educated  and 
refined  Russian  worshipper;  the  unobtrusive  kindliness  of 
Russian  priest  towards  the  unbeliever,  combined  with  a 
certain  stately  attitude  of  superiority — these  and  innum- 
erable other  circumstances  create  an  atmosphere  of  gentle 
and  reposeful  and  alluring  Russian  orthodoxy.  Even 
the  antagonism  of  the  priests  of  other  religions  is  lulled, 
first  into  quiescence,  and  then  into  actual  friendliness. 
'  Three  hundred  miles  and  more  in  the  heart  of  Manchuria 
a  converted  Chinaman  was  met.  He  had  become  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Russian  Greek  Orthodox  Church.  He  had  cut 
off  his  queue;  he  wore  his  hair  like  a  European,  dressed 
like  one,  and  made  the  elaborate  Russian  sign  of  the  cross 
on  greeting  you.     And  you  observe  a  striking  fact  on 

34 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

looking  into  this  converted  Chinaman's  case — his  Chris- 
tianization  has  not  made  him  unpopular  with  his  fellows. 
And  this  fact,  when  followed  up,  reveals  the  most  remark- 
able situation  of  which  there  is  any  record ;  for,  mirabile 
dictu,  the  Chinese  Buddhist  priest  at  this  particular  place 
comes  to  the  Russian  orthodox  priest  and  gives  him  the 
name  of  any  Chinaman  who  wishes  to  embrace  the 
Christian  religion.  This  was  hard  to  believe,  but  in- 
quiry tended  to  confirm  it. 

Here,  then,  is  one  clew  to  the  secret  of  Russian  success 
in  "  colonization."  The  apparent  brotherhood  of  Russian 
peasant,  soldier,  and  officer  with  all  classes  of  other  na- 
tionalities, which  we  have  twice  noted,  is  another  clew. 
The  progress  of  actual,  material  improvement  —  build- 
ings, streets,  parks,  roads,  railways — is  still  another  and  a 
greater.  The  intelligent  ruthlessness  of  Russian  warfare, 
when  warfare  must  be  waged, is  a  still  more  important  clew. 

But  the  conduct  of  the  Church  is  even  more  enlighten- 
ing. There  is  no  preaching  of  the  gospel  to  these  Asiatic 
pagans  as  you  would  preach  it  to  New-Englanders,  any 
more  than  there  are  sentimental  attempts  to  realize  aca- 
demic theories  of  government.  There  is  nowhere  pro- 
fusion of  words ;  there  is  everywhere  profusion  of  deeds. 
There  is  the  powerful  teaching  of  example. 

"You  see,"  explained  a  Russian  priest  (far  and  away 
a  superior  man  to  the  Russian  priest  you  ordinarily  meet 
in  Russia),  "we  Russianize  and  Christianize,  and,  if  you 
please,  civihze  by  natural  processes  and  silent  influences. 
After  they  have  been  taught  that  there  will  be  no  trifling 
with  interference  to  our  authority  (and  we  never  teach 
the  lesson  more  than  once)  the  people  come  gradually  to 
like  us.  We  do  not  interfere  in  their  worship  of  their  god 
in  their  own  way.  In  our  Church  affairs  we  do  not  offend 
the  eye  or  ear  or  any  of  their  elemental  prejudices,  and  the 
Church  gradually  becomes  pleasing  to  them.  In  precisely 
the  same  way  they  soon  get  accustomed  to  our  railway, 
and  are  quick  to  catch  its  practical  advantages.     They 

35 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

find  that  if  they  are  orderly  and  obedient  to  the  common 
authority,  their  treatment  is  that  of  all  the  remainder  of 
us.  And  so,  gradually  and  by  natural  adaptation  and 
adjustment,  they  become  what  you  call  'Russianized.'" 

It  is  merely  observing  a  proper  proportion,  in  examin- 
ing the  Russianizing  of  Manchuria,  to  give  this  much 
attention  to  the  Russian  Church  and  the  Russian  priest; 
for  the  Russian  carries  his  Church,  his  religion,  his  wife, 
and  his  bayoneted  rifle  with  him  wherever  he  goes.  It 
is  idle  to  debate  whether  his  religion  is  as  genuine  as 
yours.  You  certainly  cannot  answer  the  question 
whether  it  is  a  mere  empty  form  or  a  profound  fervor 
which  each  individual  feels  in  common  with  the  great 
race  of  which  he  is  a  unit.  These  refinements  are  not 
useful  in  considering  the  part  it  plays  in  the  advance  of 
Russian  dominion;  for,  whatever  its  nature,  it  does  the 
work  expected  of  it.  It  is  the  centre  of  that  social  order 
which  Russia  begins  to  establish  the  very  moment  she 
lays  the  foundation  of  a  building  or  surveys  the  line  of 
a  railroad.  It  is  the  centre  from  which  radiates  an  inde- 
scribable but  very  real  human  gentleness,  inferior  to  ours 
if  you  like  to  have  it  so,  but  a  distinct  improvement  over 
the  atrophied  human  conditions  of  Asia.  And  for  the 
Russian  himself,  it  is  enough  to  say  that  at  least  he  lives 
in  its  forms  and  observances,  and  in  its  articles  he  smiling- 
ly goes  to  his  death. 

Wherever  Russian  improvement  may  be  seen  in  Man- 
churia, there  may  be  seen  also  the  wooden  Greek  cross 
which  Cossack  and  guard  and  common  soldier  have  plant- 
ed above  their  slain  comrades.  Wherever  a  Russian  home 
has  risen,  wherever  a  telegraph  -  ofhce  has  been  erected, 
wherever  even  the  Cossack  has  built  his  watch-tower, 
from  which  by  day  and  night  he  sweeps  with  watchful  eye 
the  surrounding  country,  wherever  a  Russian  is  housed, 
there  hangs  the  holy  icon.  And  before  that  sacred 
image  every  Russian,  noble  or  peasant,  general  or  common 
soldier,  governor  or  servant,  bows  his  head  and  makes 

36 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  holy  sign ;  for  the  Prince  of  Peace,  wherever  the  sons 
of  Russia  have  raised  the  empire's  flag,  is  acknowledged 
Lord  of  all,  even  by  the  Czar  himself.  Whatever  may 
be  said  of  the  Russian  Church  by  its  critics,  it  must  be 
admitted  that  the  religion  it  teaches  has  a  certain  carrying 
and  sustaining  power  which  bears  the  Russian  up  in  his 
most  desperate  trials,  and  repels  not  the  strange  people 
among  whom  he  plants  his  law,  his  authority,  and  his 
faith. 

It  had  been  a  day  of  hardship  and  labor.  The  floods 
had  cut  us  off  from  food.  Temporary  bridges  had  been 
swept  away  by  a  sudden  rush  of  waters  from  a  series  of 
cloud-bursts  in  the  near-by  mountains.  The  deluge  of  the 
seventies,  when  thousands  lost  their  lives,  was  repeated  in 
Manchuria  in  the  dreadful  summer  of  1901.  One  had  to 
drink  tea  made  from  muddy  waters,  along  which  now  and 
then  a  drowned  Chinaman  floated  by.  Rivers  ran  so  swift 
and  wide  that  it  appeared  impossible  for  a  boat  to  be 
propelled  from  shore  to  shore.  Once,  when  a  too-daring 
party  of  three  attempted  the  hurrying  waters,  the  racing 
rapids  snatched  the  boat  from  their  control  and  death 
seemed  near.  High  winds  blew  bits  of  sand  into  your 
face  until  the  skin  felt  perforated  as  by  a  hundred  needle- 
points, and  the  blazing  sun  stung  and  burned  and 
blistered;  to  be  succeeded  at  evening  by  currents  of  air 
so  cold  that  you  shook  with  ague  as  you  lay  down  to 
rest  on  the  rain-drenched  earth. 

But  there  was  no  note  of  impatience  from  any  Russian 
tongue.  Only  a  German,  an  American,  and  a  Dane — act- 
ing as  English,  Russian,  and  Chinese  interpreter  —  only 
these  fretted,  with  the  impatience  of  too  highly  organized 
nerves.  Attempt  after  attempt  is  made  to  rescue  this 
strange  company.  Attempt  after  attempt  fails.  And  in 
the  attempts  some  men  are  drovvmed.  Still  no  disturb- 
ance of  the  Russian  phlegm.  Your  Dane,  your  German, 
and  your  American  may  pace  up  and  down  and  mutter 
and  complain.     The  Russian  sits  stolidly  on  the  great 

37 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

embankment,  or  firmly  stands  and  patiently  waits,  pa- 
tiently watches,  good-humored,  adaptable,  imperturbable. 
Note  well  this  characteristic,  even  in  the  folly  of  your  im- 
patience, German,  American,  Dane;  for  here  is  another 
source  of  Russian  power  which,  in  cooler  moments  and  at 
greater  leisure,  it  will  pay  you  well  to  study,  and  deeply 
study,  too. 

At  last  a  huge  boat,  hauled  miles  up-stream,  is  floated 
down  and  paddled  steadily  towards  your  shore ;  and  half 
a  mile  below  you  the  Cossacks  who  are  bringing  it  to  your 
relief  succeed  in  running  it  into  the  marshes  on  your  side 
of  the  river.  With  much  pains,  much  patience,  and  in 
constant  danger  of  being  drowned,  they  finally  bring  it 
to  your  feet,  and  you  embark.  With  exertions  which 
make  you  fear  for  them,  so  mightily  do  they  labor,  so 
swelled  and  congested  become  the  veins  in  their  foreheads, 
the  Cossacks  finally  reach  the  other  side,  a  long  distance 
below  the  point  from  which  you  started. 

That  night  you  sit  exhausted  at  the  Russian  local  head- 
quarters., in  the  heart  of  the  most  troubled  district  of 
Manchuria.  The  headquarters  consist  of  four  long  build- 
ings, of  a  single  story,  with  thick  walls  of  hardened  gray 
bricks,  enclosing  a  court  whose  sward  is  green  with  often- 
watered  grass  and  delicious  with  flowers,  whose  careful 
tending  tells  you  of  the  supervision  and  directing  hand 
of  woman.  It  is  very  restful,  secure  from  sun  and  pro- 
tected from  storm,  and  there  are  kindly  mannered,  travel- 
cultured  Russian  officers  about  you,  conversing  pleasantly 
and  quite  freely  on  any  subject  you  like.  The  talk  in- 
cludes in  its  range  even  the  respective  merits  and  de- 
merits of  their  government  as  compared  with  yours;  the 
wisdom  or  the  unwisdom,  according  to  individual  opinion, 
of  the  Russian  programme  in  Manchuria;  or  the  eccle- 
siastical policy  of  the  Greek  Church;  or,  strangest  of  all, 
the  nature  and  meaning  of  our  American  industrial  or- 
ganizations known  as  "trusts."  (The  Russian  is  just  as 
curious  and  keen  an  inquirer  as  the  American.)     Night 

38 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

falls.  Heavy  clouds  shut  out  the  stars.  An  occasional 
drop  of  rain  spats  upon  the  roof,  and  then  descends  the 
steady  downpour  of  a  Manchurian  rainfall.  All  of  you — 
Russian,  German,  American,  and  Dane  —  feel  very  far 
away  from  the  world,  very  much  cut  off  from  your  kind, 
very  much  surrounded  by  dangers — as,  indeed,  you  are. 

Suddenly,  through  the  darkness,  which  the  rain  em- 
phasizes, a  bugle  peals  across  the  night  a  few  martial 
and  not  untuneful  notes,  and  then  silence  again  closes  on 
the  sound.  For  a  moment  only  the  stillness,  and  then 
rises,  strong  and  fervid  and  deep-toned,  a  solemn  chant. 
The  talk  ceases.  Every  officer  makes  the  sign  of  the 
cross,  and  the  night  is  full  of  the  feeling  and  atmosphere 
of  prayer.  A  strange  sound  surely  for  such  a  place.  You 
ask  its  meaning,  and  learn  that  it  is  the  Cossacks  in  their 
barracks  intoning  their  night-time  appeal  to  the  throne  of 
God  for  His  care  and  protection  in  toil  and  in  battle,  and, 
finally,  for  the  salvation  of  these.  His  servants,  when,  their 
duty  done,  they  shall  stand  before  His  face. 

Go,  you  doubter  of  the  sincerity  of  these  bearded 
soldiers  and  behold  the  faces  of  these  men  as  this  song- 
prayer  is  chanted!  Witness  the  attitude  of  adoration; 
see  the  looks  of  humihty;  behold  shining  from  their  eyes 
the  light  of  a  faith  which  is  sufficient  for  them  even  unto 
death!  And,  however  you  reason  it  out,  you  cannot — 
resist  it  as  you  will — overcome  the  feeling  that  here  is  a 
vital  element  of  Russian  power  and  an  efficient  instrument 
of  Russian  policy.  You  sometimes  feel  that  you  cannot 
put  this  very  real  thing  —  this  simple  faith  of  these 
Russian  soldiers — on  the  low  plane  of  a  mere  agency  of 
statecraft.  Sometimes,  in  spite  of  yourself,  the  suggestion 
forces  upon  you  that  this  unquestioning  belief  is  quite 
as  real  as  your  own.  And  it  is  a  curious  confusion  of 
thoughts  that  crowds  upon  your  mind  when  you  reflect 
that  these  are  the  men  who,  that  very  day,  risked  their 
lives,  just  to  give  you  and  others  a  little  comfort — risked 
them  gladly  and  with  laughter.     These  are  the  men  who 

39 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

meet,  subdue,  destroy  those  bands  of  robbers  who  for 
decades  have  so  terrorized  Manchuria  that  even  their 
crimes  have  come  to  be  Hcensed.  Study  it  well,  you 
German  student  of  the  elements  of  empire,  noting,  as 
you  are,  the  smallest  incident  which  passes  before  your 
watchful  eyes.  And  study  it  well,  too,  you  American, 
study  it  well  every  one,  for  here,  it  may  be,  is  a  force  in 
the  hands  of  Russian  statesmanship  with  which  the 
world  must  reckon. 

Later  on  the  contract  with  the  Chinese  government 
will  be  set  out,  under  which  the  Manchurian  railway, 
now  completed,  but  then  in  course  of  construction,  was 
being  built.  You  can  there  read  for  yourself  the  ad- 
ministrative power  given  Russia  under  this  contract. 
But  at  these  Russian  headquarters  the  actual  execution 
of  her  powers  was  observed.  Two  Chinese  vagabonds 
were  brought  in  to  the  commanding  officer.  They  were 
not  brought  in  by  the  Russian  soldiery;  they  were  de- 
livered by  Chinamen  doing  police  duty,  perhaps  under 
Chinese  authority,  but  certainly  under  Russian  pay. 
These  offenders  had  already  been  rudely  manacled.  Very 
abject  were  they,  very  penitent  they  appeared.  It  seemed 
that  they  had  stolen  some  kind  of  railway  material.  The 
Russian  commander  made  very  short  work  of  it.  He 
merely  turned  them  over  to  the  Chinese  Governor  of  a 
near-by  town  for  the  administration  of  Chinese  justice. 

"What  will  be  done  with  them?"  was  asked. 

"Undoubtedly,"  came  the  answer,  "old"  (naming  the 
Chinese  Governor)  "will  execute  them." 

And  so  it  is  that  theft  and  disorder  are  becoming  very 
unpopular  wherever  Russian  authority  is  influential  in 
Manchuria. 

Now  for  another  phase  of  Russian  treatment  of  the 
Manchurian  native.  Half  an  hour  later  three  sick 
Chinamen,  variously  afflicted,  followed  these  evil-doers 
who  had  been  sent  hence  to  their  death.  Two  of  these 
sick  men  were  ill  of  some  kind  of  a  fever,  and  another  one 

40 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

had  been  injured  and  required  surgical  attendance.  On 
former  visits  to  China  it  had  been  observed  that  the 
Chinese  do  not  take  kindly  to  the  medical  assistance  of 
foreigners.  It  has  required  years  for  the  missionary 
hospitals  and  dispensaries  in  the  various  treaty  ports  of 
China  proper  to  get  the  confidence  of  the  people.  It 
appeared  strange,  therefore,  that  these  Chinamen  should 
come  voluntarily  to  the  Russian  headquarters  for  medical 
treatment. 

"But  you  see,"  explained  the  Russian  physician,  who 
at  once  took  them  in  charge,  "it  is  our  policy  to  help  the 
people  among  whom  we  have  come,  from  the  highest  to 
the  lowest,  in  every  possible  way  we  can.  If  I  did  not 
/'ear  that  you  would  think  that  I  am  trying  to  impress 
you  with  our  good  qualities  I  should  tell  you  that  we 
do  this  thing  not  only  from  polic3^  but  also  from  our 
nature  and  disposition.  Nothing  pleases  a  Russian  more 
than  to  help  some  other  person  who  is  in  need.  Ap- 
parently the  Chinese  feel  this,  for,  as  you  see,  they  come  on 
their  own  motion  and  very  willingly.  I  shall  treat  each 
of  these  men  just  as  carefully  as  I  do  any  of  our  own 
soldiers  or  officers.  They  go  away  ver}'  grateful  and  tell 
the  good  news  to  their  fellows.  And  so,  imperceptibly, 
but  with  astonishing  rapidity,  there  grows  up  a  kindly 
feeling  for  us." 

Greater  credit  was  given  to  this  statement  from  having 
observed,  again  and  again,  in  Siberia,  many  instances  of 
the  same  personal  kindliness  and  helpful  desire  of  the 
Russian  nature.  And  so,  once  more,  it  appeared  that,  in 
his  material  advance  into  a  dominion  which  he  is  ab- 
sorbing, the  hand  of  the  Russian  when  opposed  is  a  hard 
hand;  but  when  opposition  is  crushed,  a  soft,  soothing, 
and  even  caressing  hand. 

Again,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that,  although  building 
roads,  raising  towns,  constructing  churches,  and  the  other 
works  of  peace  constitute  the  largest  part  of  the  method 
employed  by  the  government  in  Russianizing  Manchuria, 

41 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

military  activity  is  not  wanting ;  for,  indeed,  it  is  not  want- 
ing. But  when  you  compare  the  expenditure  of  energy 
and  money  in  the  execution  of  her  peaceful  methods  with 
the  energy  and  money  expended  m  her  warlike  activities 
the  proportion  is  nine  to  one.  This  is  true,  too,  in  exter- 
nal appearance,  in  physical  manifestations,  and  results. 

Remembering  this  proportion,  we  can  better  appreciate 
at  its  true  value  Russia's  military  operations  in  construct- 
ing her  new  empire  on  the  Pacific.  Never  forget  that 
when  Russia  feels  it  necessary  to  employ  her  soldiers  in 
the  field  she  does  not  hesitate.  She  uses  them  with  all 
the  power  and  deadly  effect  possible.  This  is  as  true  of  a 
little  campaign  as  a  big  one.  It  was  true  of  the  final 
campaign  in  south-central  Manchuria,  in  the  summer  of 
1 90 1,  as  it  was  of  the  campaign  made  necessary  by  the 
Boxer  movement.  The  robber  bands,  whose  richest  field 
of  operations  extended  from  the  port  of  New-Chwang,  in 
southwestern  Manchuria,  through  Mukden  to  Kirin,  in 
central-eastern  Manchuria  (a  diagonal  line  of  several 
hundred  miles),  had  clung  tenaciously  to  their  criminal 
supremacy.  Through  this  territory  the  trade  of  Man- 
churia, and  even  a  portion  of  the  commerce  of  Trans- 
Baikal  Siberia,  passes. 

Over  this  commerce  the  robbers  of  Manchuria  exercised 
such  terrorism  that  merchants,  Chinese  as  well  as  foreign, 
finally  came  to  recognize  the  authority  of  these  powc's  of 
pillage;  and  it  is  said  that  an  office  was  actually  establish- 
ed in  the  port  of  New-Chwang  where  persons  desiring 
to  import  goods  into  Manchuria  might  secure  insurance 
against  molestation  from  robber  hordes.  When  this  in- 
surance was  paid  for,  the  robber  agent  gave  the  merchant 
a  document  and  a  little  flag,  and  with  this  document  in 
his  possession  and  this  flag  nailed  to  his  carts  or  boats  he 
travelled  in  safety. 

This  was  the  system  of  crime  which  Russia  found  in 
Manchuria,  from  the  profits  of  which  some  thousands  of 
criminals  were  living  in  unmolested  insolence.     These 

42 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

robbers  were  among  the  most  relentless  of  the  Boxers; 
and,  after  that  fanatical  movement  had  been  suppressed, 
these  Manchurian  brigands  did  not  cease  for  an  instant 
their  activity  against  the  power  whose  firm  establishment 
in  Manchuria  would  mean  the  certain  and  permanent 
destruction  of  their  practices. 

Russia  did  not  hesitate  an  instant.  She  sent  no  com- 
mission to  treat  with  them.  No  honeyed  methods,  no 
moral  suasion,  no  "sweet  reasonableness"  was  employed. 
Russia  understood  the  people  she  was  dealing  with.  It 
is  said  that  the  forces  she  despatched  to  the  scene  of 
disturbance  would  not  receive  a  flag  of  truce  from  the 
brigands  and  could  not  have  sent  one  unless  they  had 
taken  the  white  blouse  of  the  common  soldier  for  that  pur- 
pose. "We  never  carry  material  from  which  flags  of  truce 
can  be  made,"  said  a  young  officer,  rather  vaingloriously. 

Mukden  was  instantly  garrisoned  with  twelve  thousand 
Russian  soldiers  (this  garrison  was  still  there  in  igoi, 
and  has  since  been  increased  to  twenty-five  thousand  men, 
as  credible  rumor  reports) ;  and  a  flying  body  (none  but 
the  Russian  government  knows  how  many)  was  placed 
in  the  field,  commanded  by  picked  officers,  every  one  of 
whom  had  distinguished  himself  for  courage  and  resource 
within  the  preceding  twelve  months,  either  in  the  Boxer 
uprising  or  in  some  of  the  frontier  campaigns  of  Russia. 
And  the  whole  was  under  the  command  of  the  Kitchener 
of  Russia  —  General  -  Lieutenant  Cierpitsky.  This  com- 
mander is  Russia's  field  fighter.  He  has  given  his  life  to 
the  business  of  war,  and  loves  his  profession  with  an 
enthusiasm  which  cannot  properly  be  described  by  any 
other  word  than  passionate.  He  took  the  field  in  person 
at  the  head  of  his  troops.  Three  thousand  robbers  were 
killed  in  less  than  six  weeks;  two  thousand  were  captured, 
and  the  rest  scattered  and  hunted  like  beasts  into  the 
caves  and  fastnesses  of  the  concealing  mountains.  The 
power  of  organized  brigandage  in  Manchuria  has  been 
destroyed,  it  is  hoped  and  believed,  forever. 

43 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

And  do  not  forget  that  it  was  a  formidable  power  of  its 
kind.  It  could  even  be  said  to  have  had  resources  supplied 
by  the  fees  of  licensed  spoliation.  It  was  comparatively 
a  well-organized  power,  with  captains  and  chiefs.  And 
now  it  is  broken,  crushed,  scattered,  obliterated,  in  a 
period  of  time  ordinarily  required  to  get  ready  for  such  a 
campaign.  And  this  was  accomplished  by  the  simple 
process  of  making  war  when  war  was  inevitable,  just  as 
though  there  were  nothing  else  in  the  world  to  do  but  to 
make  war;  instead  of  conciliating  one  day  and  threatening 
the  next;  instead  of  entertaining  insurgents  on  Monday 
and  taking  the  field  against  them  on  Tuesday. 

"You  seem  to  work  at  this  business,  General,"  was  a 
remark  made  to  General  Cierpitsky. 

"Why  not?"  said  he.  "If  it  is  the  thing  to  do,  it  is  the 
thing  to  do.  Is  it  not?"  That  was  a  simple  statement 
that  put  you  in  mind  of  Grant — so  clear,  so  plainly  true, 
so  free  from  complexities,  limitations,  explanations. 
"And,"  added  the  Russian  commander,  "I  think  we 
have  pretty  high  warrant  for  it.  For  what  is  that  in  the 
great  book  of  the  world's  law"  (rather  a  fine  phrase,  is  it 
not?)  "about  doing  whatever  is  necessary  with  all  your 
soul — 'Whatsoever  thy  hand  findeth  to  do,  do  it  with 
thy  might.'     Is  not  that  the  quotation?" 

This  remark  of  a  fighting  general  of  Russia  was  a  key 
to  the  Russian  system  of  pacification.  Also  it  revealed 
the  interesting  circumstance  that  the  field  officer  of  the 
empire  knew  his  Bible.  Further  and  extended  conversa- 
tion with  him  disclosed  the  fact  that  he  knew  other  books 
as  well,  and  especially  all  that  had  been  written  on  the 
science  of  war.  Of  course,  everybody  interested  in  bring- 
ing an  end  to  armed  conflict  (and  we  are  all  interested  in 
that)  has  read  the  third  volume  of  Mr.  Bloc's  really 
great  work  on  war,  in  which  the  author  demonstrates,  by 
mathematics  and  statistics,  the  impossibility  of  any  more 
wars  on  a  large  scale  between  first  -  rate  nations.  No 
civilian  can  read  this  remarkable  monument  of  reasoning 

44 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

and  learning  without  becoming  convinced  that  the  day 
of  organized  slaughter  on  the  fields  of  battle  must  soon 
end.  What  more  engaging  subject,  then,  could  be  sug- 
gested to  this  practical  soldier  than  this  book  of  his 
fellow-subject  and  servant  of  the  Czar?  However,  being 
merely  a  soldier,  he  has  probably  not  read  it.  Mention 
it  to  him  timidly,  then.  You  find  that  he  has  not  only 
read  the  third  volume,  but  the  first  and  second  volumes 
too,  and  he  overwhelms  Mr.  Bloc's  apparently  irrefuta- 
ble conclusions  by  pointing  out  practical  facts  of  so  sim- 
ple and  obvious  a  nature  that,  civilian  though  you  are, 
you  wonder  why  you  never  thought  of  them  yourself. 
Test  this  rough-and-ready  soldier  a  little  further  and  you 
discover  that  there  is  not  a  work  in  the  literature  of  war 
which  you  can  name  to  him  with  which  he  is  not  familiar. 

The  most  notable  thing  about  General  Cierpitsky  is  his 
devotion  to  his  martial  profession;  the  second  thing  to 
impress  you  is  his  enthusiasm  in  Russia's  work  in  Man- 
churia.    It  is  no  forced  ardor,  no  simulated  interest. 

The  following  is  the  way  he  spoke  to  a  detachment  of  his 
soldiers  at  the  close  of  the  Mukden  campaign,  in  August, 
1 90 1.  As  the  soldiers  saw  General  Cierpitsky  walking 
swiftly  down  upon  them,  every  hand  of  the  long  line  came 
instantly  and  rigidly  to  the  cap  in  impressive  salute,  and 
from  a  thousand  throats  in  unison  was  shouted  out  their 
soldier  -  greeting  to  their  commander,  a  free  translation 
of  which  is,  "Hail!  our  General!"  or  "Good-morning,  our 
General!"  or  "We  greet  you,  our  General!"  And  here, 
in  free  translation,  is  the  exact  speech  he  made  to  them, 
with  their  responses: 

General  Cierpitsky.  "Soldiers,  I  am  glad  to  see  you 
again." 

Soldiers  (in  unison).    "Thank  you,  our  General." 

General  Cierpitsky.  "You  have  overcome  the  robbers, 
armed  with  the  best  guns;  you  have  overcome  cHmate, 
floods,  and  heat;  and  you  have  overcome  dysentery  and 
every  form  of  disease  which  vile  water  and  viler  sur- 

45 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

roundings  create.  And,  soldiers,  you  ought  to  thank 
God  for  preserving  your  Hves." 

Soldiers  (in  unison).    "We  thank  God,  our  General." 

General  Cierpitsky.  ' '  And,  soldiers,  you  ought  to  pray 
to  God  to  keep  you  strong  to  fight  again  for  Him  and  for 
your  country." 

Soldiers.    "  We  pray  God,  our  General." 

General  Cierpitsky.  "  Now  you  are  going  home  and 
you  deserve  rest;  but  you  must  always  be  ready  to  fight 
for  your  Czar,  your  country,  and  your  God." 

Soldiers.    "We  will  always  be  ready,  our  General." 

Can  any  one  fail  to  see  the  significance  of  this  brief 
address?  Here  was  Russia's  hardest  field  fighter,  at  the 
end  of  a  bloody  campaign  made  necessary  for  the  pro- 
tection of  her  railroad  property,  reminding  his  troops  that 
they  had  been  fighting  "for  God  and  their  country," 
commanding  them  to  "thank  God  for  preserving  their 
lives,"  and  admonishing  them  to  be  ready  always  to 
serve  "their  God  and  their  country."  And  there  was 
not  one  bit  of  cant  in  it.  It  was  spontaneous,  natural, 
real. 

And  so  the  General  closed;  and,  with  a  kindly  wave  of 
his  hand  to  the  troops,  whom  he  in  person  and  on  foot, 
with  sword  in  hand,  had  led  on  a  hard  excursion  in  a 
difficult  country,  he  turned  to  leave  them.  Instantly  the 
soldiers  broke  into  the  deep -toned,  thrilling  Russian 
huzza,  and  the  air  was  filled  with  their  caps,  waved  and 
tossed  aloft  in  adieu  to  their  leader.  These  soldiers  had 
just  returned  from  a  merciless  campaign,  yet  they  did 
not  look  very  blood  -  thirsty  —  on  the  contrary,  quite 
mild-mannered,  quite  easy-going,  and  quite  en  rapport 
with  the  people  themselves.  This  is  a  note  touched  be- 
fore, but  it  must  be  touched  again  and  again  if  you  will 
understand  Russia's  success  in  extending  her  authority. 
The  Russian  army,  as  well  as  the  Russian  working-men 
and  peasants,  fraternize  with  the  conquered  people.  They 
do   it   naturally   and   without   effort.     There   is   in   the 

46 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

familiarity  of  their  intercourse  a  suggestion  of  kinship. 
Perhaps,  Russian  understanding  of  the  Asiatic  is  in- 
stinctive and  congenital;  for  the  Russian  has  a  little 
Asiatic  blood  in  his  veins  and  much  Asiatic  traditions  in 
his  mind,  inherited  from  the  centuries  of  Tartar  rule. 
But  whatever  the  causes,  it  is  certain  the  Russian  does 
understand  the  Asiatic  as  no  other  people  understands 
him;  better  than  the  German,  better  even  than  the 
Englishman. 

Skobeleff  sounded  the  key-note  of  Russian  policy  when 
he  said:  "My  system  is  this — to  strike  hard,  and  keep 
on  hitting  until  resistance  is  completely  over;  then  at 
once  to  form  ranks,  cease  slaughter,  and  be  kind  and 
humane  to  the  prostrate  enemy." 

It  is  a  system  based  on  very  simple  common-sense,  is 
it  not?  Certainly  it  is  a  system  peculiarly  adapted  to 
Asiatics.  At  any  rate,  no  man  can  deny  that  it  has  been 
successful  wherever  employed ;  for  be  it  remembered 
that  Russia  has  absorbed  more  territory,  assimilated  a 
greater  number  of  different  peoples,  and  fought  more 
border  wars  than  any  modem  nation;  and  that  in  the 
whole  course  of  her  ceaseless  march  there  has  never  been 
a  single  serious  uprising  against  Russian  authority,  once 
that  authority  has  been  established.  That  is  a  fact  worth 
examining  and  reflecting  upon. 


IV 

TYPES    OF    CIVIL    AGENTS    OF    THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

IN  General  Cierpitsky  we  observe  the  type  of  officer 
that  Russia  puts  in  the  field  to  conduct  actual  opera- 
tions at  the  front.  What  kind  of  men  does  she  place  in 
charge  of  the  administrative  functions  of  her  forming  do- 
minions? What  of  the  minds  and  characters  that  are  con- 
structing her  railway,  the  mileage  of  which  in  Manchuria 
alone  is  nearly  half  the  distance  across  the  American 
continent?  What  of  the  subordinates  in  the  force  of 
constructive  empire — the  station-agents,  the  "masters  of 
distance"?  After  all,  the  only  three  things  worth  study- 
ing in  any  country  are  the  soil  and  its  potentialities,  the 
people  and  their  capacities,  and  the  few  leaders  and  their 
inherent  power.  All  that  is  ancient  and  monumental  is 
of  value  only  in  interpreting  these  three  elements  of  the 
present. 

All  Russian  railroads  are  divided  into  what  are  called 
"distances,"  each  distance  having  a  master.  This  "mas- 
ter of  a  distance" — literal  translation — is  a  cross  between 
the  division  superintendent  of  an  American  railway  and 
a  section  boss.  The  same  system  exists  in  Manchuria 
wherever  the  railroad  is  completed.  Let  us  see  what 
quality  of  mentality  and  force  of  character  are  in  this  type. 

"I  believe  with  all  my  soul  in  the  Orthodox  Greek 
Church,  but  I  believe  in  it  as  an  engine  of  national  au- 
thority more  than  in  a  religious  way."  It  is  a  great,  big, 
bearded  "master  of  distance"  on  one  of  the  divisions  of 
the  Manchurian  railway  who  is  talking  now,  as  the  con- 
struction-train bearing  materials  proceeds  slowly  along 

48 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  temporary  track  laid  by  the  side  of  the  substantial 
permanent  grade.  Let  him  talk.  Every  word  is  a  meas- 
ure of  the  men  in  whose  hands  Russia  places  her  work  of 
building  what  she  calls  and  believes  is  civilization  in 
Manchuria.  "I  beHeve  in  God,  of  course,"  he  continued, 
"but  not  the  individual  God  with  parts  and  substance, 
who  was  the  deity  of  my  childhood  days.  As  for  im- 
mortality, I  cannot  figure  that  out.  After  a  Hfetime  of 
meditation,  it  seems  to  me  unthinkable.  But  there  is 
the  immortality  of  the  race — a  divine  destiny  and  pur- 
pose for  every  nation.  The  Church  of  Russia  is  the 
highest  interpretation  of  our  national  unity  and  of  Slav 
dominion.  And  so  I  am  as  earnest  a  member  of  the 
Russian  Church  as  I  am  a  loyal  subject  of  the  Czar,  and 
for  much  the  same  reason." 

"What  do  you  think  of  the  divine  destiny,  as  you  call 
it,  of  the  Russian  nation?"  was  asked  of  this  railway 
section-master. 

"You  mean,  what  do  I  think  is  the  divine  mission 
of  the  Slav  race,  as  expressed  through  the  forms  of  the 
Russian  autocracy  or  nation?"  was  his  answer  (rather 
discriminating  and  analytical,  I  thought).  "Well,"  con- 
tinued he,  "what  do  you  say  to  the  introduction  of  law, 
order,  justice,  and  religion  among  the  four  hundred  mill- 
ions of  China?" 

Let  us  keep  in  mind  this  flash  of  imperial  purpose  from 
one  of  Russia's  humblest  instruments.  What  we  are 
doing  now  is  putting  the  tape-measure  up  and  down  the 
spine  of  Russian  agents  in  Manchuria,  finding  the  length 
of  their  arms  and  the  stability  of  their  legs  and  the  size 
of  their  heads.  And  this  extract  from  a  fascinating  con- 
versation does  that  very  well.  But  here,  flaming  up  in 
the  least  expected  of  places,  is  an  expression  of  Russian 
aspiration  which  must  be  followed  with  the  same  care 
with  which  the  miner  follows  the  first  thin  vein  of  gold 
that  points  to  priceless  and  hitherto  unsuspected  deposits 
in  the  heart  of  the  mountains.  But  that  is  for  another 
4  49 


THE    RUSSIAN   ADVANCE 

chapter.  It  is  enough  for  the  present  that  we  find  this 
section-master  discoursing,  with  sense  and  real  depth  of 
thought,  upon  those  abstruse  questions  involved  in  the 
philosophy  of  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church.  And,  far 
more  significant,  we  find  him  stating  a  racial  ambition 
with  almost  poetic  power.  Of  course,  upon  the  subject 
of  the  railroad  in  Manchuria  he  will  talk  with  you  by 
the  rod;  but  that  was  to  have  been  expected.  For 
example : 

"The  railroad  is  much  better  than  the  Siberian  rail- 
road," said  he.  "  It  is  more  honestly  built,  for  one  thing. 
I  do  not  think  there  has  been  any  corruption  in  the  con- 
struction of  the  Manchurian  road;  certainly  not  so  much 
as  in  the  Siberian,  and  particularly  in  the  Ussuri  road. 
You  notice  yourself  that  the  line  is  as  straight  as  it  reason- 
ably can  be."  And  he  went  on  about  the  railroad  very 
entertainingly  and  very  informingly. 

"Ah!"  said  he,  springing  up  as  we  came  in  sight  of  a 
thick-walled  house  built  for  the  engineers  and  officers  of 
the  temporary  work,  "there  is  where  they  nearly  got  us." 
(Referring  to  the  Boxers  the  previous  year.)  "They  at- 
tacked us  in  force,  and  had  rifles  and  some  field-guns.  It 
was  a  surprise,  sure  enough,  I  will  admit.  But  we  got 
our  men  together  quickly,  and  I  myself  took  command. 
We  beat  them  off,  but  since  the  Turkish  war  I  have  seen 
no  harder  fighting.  It  was  hand  -  to  -  hand  sometimes. 
Six  men  I  shot  myself." 

He  was  full  of  tales  like  this;  whether  they  were  true  or 
not  they  were  significant.  Proud  as  he  was  of  the  railroad, 
he  was  prouder  of  his  feats  as  a  soldier.  It  was  the 
soldier  bubbling  up  in  his  blood  from  the  hidden  and 
profound  sources  of  his  very  soul.  It  was  that  racial 
spirit  not  inherent  in  the  Slav  blood,  but  injected  into  it 
by  generations  of  military  assault  from  Europe  on  the 
west  and  barbaric  invasion  from  Asia  on  the  east;  for,  if 
from  beneath  the  placid  and  languid  manner  of  the 
Russian  the  world  has  now  and  then  been  astonished  by 

50 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

volcanic  eruptions  of  martial  spirit,  let  the  world  re- 
member that  for  many  centuries  the  Turk  on  the  south, 
the  Tartar  on  the  east,  the  Teuton  and  the  Gaul  on  the 
west,  and  even  the  icy  hosts  of  nature  on  the  arctic  north, 
have  been  battling  the  patient  Slav.  Why  should  the 
world  be  surprised  if  at  every  point  of  the  compass 
Russia  presents  fixed  bayonets  ready  for  the  thrust? 
For  from  every  point  of  the  compass  Russia  has  for 
centuries  been  invaded  and  assaulted.  We  cannot  take 
up  too  much  space  with  conversations,  of  course,  but  this 
one  is  typical.  A  hundred  others  like  it  from  men  of 
inferior  station  might  be  given ;  and  only  brief  points 
from  this  one  are  referred  to,  but  their  illumination  is 
their  apology. 

"I  make  no  doubt  of  the  permanency  of  Russian  occu- 
pation here,"  said  he.  "It  is  my  intention  to  remain 
when  my  contract  with  the  railroad  has  expired.  My  wife 
and  children  are  on  the  way  here  now.  The  opportu- 
nities in  a  hundred  lines  are  so  alluring  and  substantial 
that  I  should  feel  as  if  I  were  insulting  Fate  if  I  did  not 
improve  them.  And  those  opportunities  are  in  every 
direction.  There  is  mining  in  the  mountains,  there  is 
commerce,  there  is  everything.  I  will  show  you  a  young 
man  about  twenty-five  versts  from  here  who  is  getting 
rich  with  his  little  provision  store." 

At  dawn  of  a  morning  full  of  rain,  the  interpreter 
routed  out  "  the  young  man  who  is  getting  rich."  He  had 
a  little  store  in  a  Russo-Chinese  village  clustered  about 
a  station.  He  was  a  typical,  blond-haired,  blue-eyed, 
light-skinned  Slav.  We  bought  meats  canned  by  a  Chi- 
cago packing  firm,  crackers  made  by  another  American 
firm.  The  store  was  well  stocked,  and  every  item  of  its 
merchandise  was  from  Russia,  Germany,  and  America, 
with  proportions  in  the  order  named,  except  perfumery, 
which  was  from  France  as  well  as  Russia.  (No  Russian 
store  is  so  mean  and  humble  that  it  cannot  supply  you 
with  a  half-dozen  brands  of  perfumery.) 

51 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

"I  am  getting  a  little  Chinese  custom,"  the  man  said. 
"They  take  best  to  American  flour.  Of  course,  most  of 
my  trade  is  Russian  [he  meant  that  he  sold  mostly  to 
Russians — guards,  officers,  etc.].  It  is  hard  to  get  any  hne 
started  with  the  Chinese,  but  v/hen  it  is  started  it  steadily 
grows.  But  I  cannot  compete  with  the  Chinese  mer- 
chants once  they  take  it  into  their  heads  to  sell  the  same 
kind  of  goods  I  do.  And  it  will  not  be  long  before  they 
do  that,  but  by  then  I  shall,  perhaps,  have  developed 
into  a  general  merchant  for  the  supply  of  foreign  goods 
to  local  merchants." 

Here,  then,  was  a  contribution  to  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant of  Oriental  commercial  studies  —  to  wit,  to  get 
the  Chinaman  to  buy  your  goods,  you  must  induce  him 
to  like  them;  and  to  induce  him  to  like  them  you  must 
take  the  thing  itself  to  his  very  table.  When  he  uses  it 
he  acquires  a  taste  for  it,  and  when  he  acquires  a  taste 
for  anything  the  Chinaman  becomes  a  most  persistent  and 
generous  customer.  This  observation  is  by  the  way,  and 
as  a  reminder  of  a  subject  of  immediate  interest  to 
Americans  when  we  reach  it. 

Frequently  a  gang  of  a  thousand  Chinamen  have  but  a 
single  yellow-mustached  Russian  as  their  overseer,  but 
this  single  overseer  keeps  them  at  work  by  a  system  of 
bosses.  They  are  divided  into  companies,  and  these 
companies  into  squads,  and  each  squad  has  its  Chinese 
boss.  These  overseers  you  will  find  respectful,  disci- 
plined, of  fair  intelligence,  but  every  one  of  them  endowed 
with  the  personality  of  command.  Certain  it  is  that  the 
multitudes  of  laborers  are  well  managed.  Go  to  their 
huts  when  the  day's  work  is  done,  and  have  your  inter- 
preter engage  them  in  conversation.  Some  are  smoking 
tobacco — why  do  Chinamen  never  chew? — some  smoking 
opium,  some  gambling.  You  are  treated  courteously, 
offered  food  and  tobacco,  and  there  is  no  unwillingness  to 
talk  freely  with  you. 

"We  are  very  contented,  indeed,  with  our   lot,"  was 

52 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  free  translation  of  the  interpreter,  talking  to  a  Chinese 
laborer,  who,  with  more  than  a  thousand  comrades,  was 
building  an  immense  grade.  "Many  of  us  were  Boxers. 
There  is  no  use  going  into  the  reason  why;  maybe  we 
were  misled,  and  maybe  we  received  orders.  We  like  the 
way  the  Russian  treats  us.  We  have  work  to  do,  are 
told  how  to  do  it,  and  get  paid  for  it.  We  don't  know, 
and  we  don't  care,  who  governs  the  country.  All  we  want 
is  to  make  money,  so  that  we  can  buy  food  and  tobacco 
and  opium." 

Connect  this  remark  of  the  railway  laborer  in  Man- 
churia with  the  observation  of  a  highly  educated,  English- 
speaking  young  Chinese  merchant  of  Shanghai,  met  as  a 
fellow-traveller  in  Japan:  "I  don't  care  who  governs  us, 
and  I  don't  know  a  single  Chinese  merchant  who  does 
care.  All  we  want  is  an  opportunity  to  do  business  and 
make  money." 

We  have  observed  the  soldier,  the  priest,  the  subordi- 
nate officials,  the  bosses,  even  the  laborers.  Let  us  now 
become  acquainted  with  the  constructive  minds  on  the 
ground.  At  Nikolsk,  Harbin,  Vladivostock — wherever 
emergency  or  inclination  calls  him — you  will  find  the 
engineer-in-chief  in  charge  of  the  Manchurian  railway, 
that  most  extraordinary  example  in  the  world  of  what 
is  called  "progress,"  recently  constructed,  on  which  the 
Russian  government  have  expended  more  than  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  million  dollars. 

Engineer-in-Chief  Tugovitch  is,  perhaps,  sixty  years  of 
age,  of  powerful  physical  frame,  face  glowing  with  intel- 
ligence, an  eye  dull  in  lustre  but  keen  in  suggestons  of 
quick  mentality.  Tugovitch  is  the  personal  selection  of 
Russia's  master  mind,  Witte,  Minister  of  Finance  and  now 
practical  Premier  of  the  Czar.  For  nearly  forty  years  he 
has  been  in  active  service.  He  was  a  military  engineer 
in  the  Russo-Turkish  war.  He  was  one  of  the  engineers 
of  the  Trans-Caspian  road.  Again,  he  was  employed  in 
difficult  engineering  work  in  the  mountains  of  Bessarabia. 

53 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

There  is  not  a  practical  feature  of  railway  building,  from 
the  placing  of  ties  or  the  bolting  of  rails  to  the  planning 
of  lines  and  the  thinking-out  of  systems,  of  which  Tugo- 
vitch  is  not  master  by  experience  as  well  as  ability. 

And,  like  nearly  all  the  men  who  struggle  to  the  top 
through  the  civil-service  grades  of  Russia's  administrative 
system,  Tugovitch  is  a  planner  of  empire,  a  moulder  of 
the  future,  a  suggester  of  material  schemes  for  the  seizure 
of  power  and  opportunity  by  the  Russian  government. 
For  example,  Tugovitch  many  years  ago  proposed  that 
the  Czar  should  build  the  railway  across  Asia  Minor  to 
Bagdad,  thus  controlling  the  commerce  of  the  Levant 
and  holding  Persia  in  the  inextricable  grasp  of  Russia. 
It  is  said  that  Witte  approved  the  scheme,  but  he  was 
then  only  the  head  of  a  department  in  the  Ministry  of 
Finance,  and  the  cabinet  rejected  the  Persian  proposition. 
It  was  a  mistake  of  which  Germany  took  quick  advantage, 
for  German  capitalists  now  have  the  concession  for  this 
railroad.  It  is  a  part  of  Germany's  strategy,  which  has 
usurped  the  past  power  of  England  and  the  future 
possibilities  of  Russia  in  the  Turkish  Empire,  across 
Asia  Minor  and  through  Persia,  even  to  the  gulf.  If 
you  ask  what  all  this  means,  the  answer  is  so  simple  as 
to  be  startling.  It  means  some  twenty  million  of  con- 
sumers in  Turkey,  several  millions  more  in  Asia  Minor, 
and  some  fifteen  milHons  in  Persia;  and  that  is  something 
to  interest  factory  owners,  factory  laborers,  agriculturists, 
and  everybody  else  who  has  anything  to  sell. 

Tugovitch  is  very  frank  and  free  in  his  expression  of 
opinion.  More  than  seven  3^ears  ago  he  went  through 
Manchuria  on  horseback  over  every  possible  line  of  the 
proposed  road.  He  personally  selected  the  routes  which 
the  various  lines  were  to  take. 

"I  know  the  road  was  not  built  for  the  purpose  of 
seizing  Manchuria,"  said  he,  "nor,  as  dreamers  declare, 
for  the  purpose  of  ultimately  controlHng  China.  It  was 
built  for  a  plain  engineering  reason — namely,  because  of 

54 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  impracticability  of  water  transportation  down  the 
Amur  and  Shilka  rivers.  You  have  been  over  that  route 
yourself.  The  rise  and  tall  of  water  in  those  rivers  make 
navigation  impracticable."  (It  had  taken  me  more  than 
four  weeks  to  go  a  distance  on  those  rivers  which  was 
scheduled  for  eight  days.) 

"The  engineering  difficulties  and  financial  cost  of  con- 
tinuing the  Siberian  lines  along  the  Amur  River,"  he  con- 
tinued, "are  plain  to  everybody  who  takes  the  journey. 
And  yet,  having  built  the  Siberian  railroad  as  far  as  we 
have,  it  was  necessary  to  complete  the  line  continuously 
to  Vladivostock.  Manchuria  was  between  our  line  and 
Trans-Baikal  Siberia  on  the  west  and  our  port  of  Vladi- 
vostock on  the  east.  The  plains,  valleys,  and  passes  of 
Manchuria  afforded  a  route  almost  straight,  and  one  which, 
in  comparison  with  the  difficult  Amur  route,  is  cheap 
and  easy.  This  fact  of  physical  geography  and  engineer- 
ing science  was  the  origin  of  the  Manchurian  railway. 
Of  course,  when  it  became  possible  to  lease  Port  Arthur 
and  Talienhwan  for  a  short  period,  and  thus  have  a  rail- 
way outlet  to  the  very  thick  and  centre  of  the  human 
activities  of  the  Orient,  common-sense  suggested  the  ex- 
tension of  our  line  to  those  ports." 

"That,"  he  went  on,  "is  absolutely  all  there  is  in  the 
purpose  and  consequences  of  the  building  of  this  road. 
Russia  cannot  colonize  this  territory  if  she  would. 
The  Russian  cannot  compete  with  the  Chinaman  as 
merchant,  laborer,  artisan.  Now  that  safety  and  order 
have  been  established  as  a  necessary  consequence  of 
guarding  our  railroad,  Chinamen  are  pouring  into  Man-/ 
churia  Hterally  by  the  hundred  thousand.  So  far,  then,! 
from  the  Russian  peasant  crowding  out  the  Chinaman 
in  this  country,  the  very  much  more  serious  question 
is:  How  shall  we  preserve  Siberia,  and  even  Russia,  from 
Chinese  competition?  The  contract  with  the  Chinese 
government  for  the  construction  of  the  road  provides 
that  the  Chinese  government  may  take  it  off  our  hands 

55 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

in  thirty  years,  and  that  in  any  event  it  shall  become 
the  absolute  property  of  China  in  eighty  years.  I  think, 
and  all  of  the  deeper  students  think,  that  exactly  this 
will  occur.  You  ask  why,  then,  are  we  expending  all  this 
energy,  all  this  money  in  constructing  the  road  at  all?  It 
is  to  complete  the  Siberian  road,  as  I  tell  you." 

This  same  question  was  asked  another  official,  who 
made  a  similar  answer,  but  added:  "I  admit  that  is  no 
sufficient  answer  to  the  question,  nor  to  any  of  the  schemes 
for  the  extending  of  Russian  Empire.  We  are  moving 
forward,  always  moving  forward,  in  each  particular  and 
specific  case,  without  knowing  exactly  why.  The  prac- 
tical and  immediate  reasons  against  each  of  our  advances 
for  more  than  a  century  have  been  overwhelming,  and 
most  Russians,  as  individuals,  have  been  opposed  to 
them;  and  yet  the  command  is, '  Forward!'  still '  Forward! ' 
and  ever  'Forward!'  It  is  as  if  we  were  impelled  out- 
ward and  onward  by  some  unseen  hand.  And  by  'we' 
I  include  the  Czar  himself;  the  Czar  and  his  people  are 
one." 

Sure  enough,  nearly  every  Russian  met  in  Russia  and 
Siberia  was  against  the  acquisition  of  Manchuria,  and 
yet  all  of  them  were  willing  to  fight  rather  than  aban- 
don it. 


THB    OVERLORDS    OF    THE    CZAR's    ADVANCING    POWER    IN 
THE    FAR    EAST 

GENERAL  GRODEKOFF,  Governor  of  eastern  Si- 
beria and  Manchuria,  and  Admiral  Alexieff,  execu- 
tive representative  of  the  Russian  government  in  south 
Manchuria  and  upon  the  Oriental  seas,  were  both  very- 
frank,  very  open,  and  astonishingly  independent  in  their 
opinions — astonishingly  independent,  that  is,  from  the 
Anglo-Saxon  view-point,  which  is  that  all  Russians,  and 
especially  all  officials,  have  the  same  opinion,  and  that 
that  opinion  is  formulated  for  them  at  St.  Petersburg. 
Let  us  observe  what  manner  of  men  are  these  overlords 
of  the  Czar's  civil,  military,  and  industrial  forces  in  Man- 
churia. 

You  will  hear  about  General  Grodekoff  a  thousand 
miles  before  you  reach  the  capital  where  he  has  his  head- 
quarters. He  is  one  of  those  vital  personalities  about 
whom  there  is  individual  interest  and  mouth-to-mouth 
gossip.  "He  is  a  simple  man,"  you  will  hear  one  remark. 
Another  will  say,  "General  Grodekoff  is  the  hardest  worker 
in  all  Russia."  "A  hard  worker,  yes;  but  not  so  hard 
as  Witte,  is  he?"  a  third  will  interject.  "General  Grode- 
koff fought  with  Skobeleff,"  remarked  a  German-speak- 
ing Russian  merchant,  as  our  boat  slowly  paddled  down 
the  Shilka  River.  "He  did  more  than  that — he  was  one 
of  Skobeleff's  favorite  officers,"  said  another.  (Skobe- 
leff is  the  hero  of  all  Russians.  To  have  it  said  that  "he 
fought  with  Skobeleff"  is  a  greater  distinction  than  a 
title.)     "He    is   a  bachelor;   he   has    always    been    too 

57 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

busy  to  nlarry,"  said  another,  and  much  more  of  the 
like. 

And  so,  from  a  medley  of  chance  remarks,  more  of  gossip 
and  with  gossip's  inaccuracy,  most  of  them  praise,  some 
of  them  censure,  but  all  of  them  personal  and  full  of 
color,  the  individuality  of  General  Grodekoff,  who  wields 
all  the  absolute  powers  of  the  Czar  throughout  a  territory 
as  large  as  the  United  States  east  of  the  Mississippi  River, 
grows  upon  you  until  it  becomes  a  living  thing.  And 
how  simple,  how  direct,  how  strong  this  man  is  you  must 
lose  no  opportunity  to  observe. 

Ask  for  an  audience,  then,  the  afternoon  of  your  arrival 
at  Khabaroff .  It  is  customary  to  receive  callers  only  in 
the  forenoon,  but  audience  is  granted  not  for  the  next 
day,  nor  for  that  night,  nor  in  an  hour,  but  instantly. 
There  is  no  "red  tape"  here,  then,  but  an  air  of  business 
curiously  American.  An  adjutant  meets  you  at  the  door 
and  conducts  you  through  an  anteroom  into  an  impressive 
audience-chamber,  where  the  Governor-General  receives 
deputations,  delegations,  commissions  of  every  kind  from 
any  portion  of  the  sub-empire  which  he  rules  for  the  Czar. 
At  one  end  of  this  room  is  a  raised  platform,  with  three 
great  chairs  upon  it,  back  of  which  hang  the  portraits  of 
the  Czar  and  Czarina.  On  either  side  and  in  front  of  this 
platform  two  quick-firing  guns  command  the  hall.  The 
impression  is  that  of  naked  power.  You  can  understand 
that  a  deputation  of  Chinese  received  in  the  hall  would 
go  away  with  an  idea  of  sheer  force  instantly  available. 

But  you  do  not  stop  in  this  audience-chamber.  You 
are  taken  through  into  a  plain  office,  with  plain  desk  and 
many  papers  in  neatly  arranged  bundles.  In  a  moment 
a  quick  step  is  heard,  and  through  the  door  of  an  inner 
room  General  Grodekoff  himself  comes  forward  to  greet 
you.  He  is  short  in  stature,  broad-shouldered,  bald- 
headed,  full-bearded,  nervous  of  speech.  He  is  dressed 
in  uniform,  of  course,  and  wears  his  trousers  inside  his 
boots,  according  to  the  universal  Russian  custom.     He 

58 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

talks  quickly,  with  precision  of  idea  and  direction  of 
manner.  Force,  energy,  keenness,  masterfulness — these 
are  the  impressions  he  makes  upon  you.  He  knows  all 
about  President  McKinley.  He  knew  all  about  President 
Roosevelt,  too  (then  Vice-President),  and  speaks  of  in- 
cidents in  his  career.  Both  of  them  he  admired.  You 
get  the  notion,  though,  that  GrodekofE  has  not  been  a 
great  reader  of  books,  and  that  the  reason  is  that  he  has 
been  too  busy.  He  has  been  the  maker  of  materials  for 
books.  He  was  an  officer  under  Skobeleff.  He  knows 
all  about  Afghanistan  from  having  tramped  and  ridden 
over  and  through  it.  The  same  is  true  of  Persia.  On 
all  these  subjects  he  has  clear  and  vigorous  personal  opin- 
ions formed  from  actual  experience. 

Turn  where  you  will,  you  will  find  this  deputy  of  the 
Czar  informed,  usually  at  first  hand  and  from  personal 
observation.  Where  it  has  been  impossible  for  him  to 
see  for  himself,  he  has  learned  from  the  lips  of  those  who 
have  seen.  He  knows  all  about  our  situation  in  the 
Philippines,  and  is  not  reserved  in  his  opinion.  He  is  a 
master  of  Chinese  conditions  in  comprehensive  generality 
and  in  particular  detail  (the  secret  of  this  was  learned 
later  in  China  itself).  Most  of  all,  you  note  his  unhesi- 
tating frankness.  No  matter  what  the  subject,  he  does 
not  pause  for  ready  and  full  reply,  and  if  there  is  hes- 
itation he  leads  the  conversation  himself.  Above  all, 
there  is  no  attempt  to  impress  or  to  please  or  to  do  any- 
thing else  than  simply  to  meet  you  face  to  face  on  any 
ground  of  possible  mutual  interest.  To  sum  it  all  up,  you 
find  that  he  is  a  man  so  absorbed  in  his  work  that  he  has 
given  his  whole  life  to  it.  And  this  is  the  quality  of  man 
whom  the  representatives  of  other  nations  must  meet  and 
overcome  wherever  their  interest  conflicts  with  that  of 
Russia.  It  is  a  consideration  worthy  of  as  much  thought 
as  the  subject  of  Oriental  markets  and  Oriental  states- 
manship itself,  for  no  nation  will  be  permitted  to  have 
her  own  way  on  the  Pacific  or  in  the  Orient  until  such 

59 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

highly  equipped  and  devoted  men  as  General  Grodekoff 
are  met  and  reckoned  with.  And  Germany  has  just  such 
men,  too. 

Two  more  examples  of  the  intellectual  agencies  em- 
ployed by  Russia  in  Manchuria,  and  you  have  enough 
data  from  which  to  form  a  fair  estimate.  Admiral  Alex- 
ieflf,  with  headquarters  at  Port  Arthur,  makes  upon  you 
the  impression  of  almost  abnormal  alertness.  He,  too, 
is  a  bachelor.  His  life  also  has  been  devoted,  with  the 
enthusiasm  of  a  boy,  to  the  growing  power  of  Russia. 
He  is  perhaps  fifty  years  of  age,  and  instinct  with  nervous 
energy.  His  step  is  impetuous.  The  whole  movement 
of  the  man  is  full  of  dash.  His  talk  is  the  vocalization 
of  force;  his  attitude,  even  when  sitting  in  conversation, 
is  that  of  bolt-upright  intentness.  Alexieff  is  informed, 
very  frank,  open,  never  hesitating  to  formulate  a  reply 
and  giving  you  his  opinion  quite  off-hand.  He  is  as  quick 
in  speech  as  is  Admiral  Dewey,  of  whom  again  and  again 
you  are  reminded  when  talking  to  him.  His  days  are 
full  of  toil;  indeed,  most  of  his  nights  are  full  of  toil  also. 

There  appears  to  be  something  about  these  men  whom 
Russia  has  set  at  the  front  of  her  advance  which  fasci- 
nates them  into  a  passion  for  work.  Perhaps  it  is  that 
they  are  always  doing  something,  and  not  merely  talk- 
ing about  doing  something.  Each  day  things  are  to  be 
settled.  Ships  are  to  be  sent  hither  and  yon;  movements 
of  bodies  of  troops  are  to  be  thought  out  and  executed; 
information  is  to  be  daily,  almost  hourly,  received  on  all 
kinds  of  important  subjects;  decisions  are  required  on  all 
manner  of  cases,  many  of  them  of  far-reaching  impor- 
tance; delicate  conditions,  constantly  changing  and  newly 
forming,  are  to  be  reckoned  with,  and  reckoned  with 
accurately.  In  short,  the  great  heads  of  Russian  admin- 
istration have  enough,  and  more  than  enough,  to  do  all 
of  the  time.  And  the  things  which  they  do  are  tangible, 
definite.  They  are  things  which  afford  a  man  the  con- 
sciousness, when  he  closes  his  eyes  at  night,  that  he  can  see 

60 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

where  his  energies  have  gone  during  the  day.  Whatever 
the  reason,  the  activity,  intelhgence,  alertness,  and  im- 
mense information  of  men  Hke  Admiral  Alexieff  strike  you 
most  powerfully.  And  when  one  who  had  come  to  take 
the  measure  of  this  man  departs,  he  will  find  this  one  ex- 
pression repeating  itself  again  and  again,  "Equipped — 
well  equipped." 

In  1901 ,  when  the  writer  met  Admiral  Alexieff ,  he  was  in 
supreme  command  of  the  Asiatic  Russian  squadron,  and 
also  in  command  of  all  southern  Manchuria.  Into  his 
hand,  too,  it  was  understood,  were  gathered  all  of  the 
threads  of  Russian  diplomacy  and  statecraft  running  out 
all  through  the  Orient.  It  was  at  that  time  predicted  that 
Alexieff  would  soon  be  the  first  and  highest  representative 
of  the  Czar  throughout  I\Ianchuria  and  the  entire  Far  East, 
and  even  in  Trans-Baikal  Siberia.  His  elevation  during 
the  present  year  to  precisely  that  station  has  established 
the  reality  of  the  impressions  formed  in  1901.  Whatever 
may  be  the  future  career  of  this  uncommon  man,  whether 
he  continues  indefinitely  to  enjoy  the  exalted  confidence 
of  his  sovereign,  which  is  now  his,  or  whether  one  of  these 
strange  revolutions  of  autocratic  favor  shall  reduce  him 
to  an  humbler  place,  all  statesmen,  of  whatever  national- 
ity, who  may  during  this  period  be  called  upon  to  meet 
in  negotiations  or  otherwise  Admiral  Alexieff  would  do 
well  to  understand  that  they  are  dealing  with  a  master 
mind,  a  master  will,  and  altogether  with  a  masterful  man. 

While  Admiral  Alexieff  was  perfectly  unreserved  in  his 
conversation,  while  he  talked  with  all  the  freedom  of  Tol- 
stoi— as  indeed  was  the  case  with  General  Grodekoff — the 
statement  that  the  conversation  was  to  be  regarded  as 
personal  necessarily  excludes  a  repetition  of  anything  said 
by  either,  or  even  an  intimation  of  their  views,  utterances 
of  opinion,  or  assertions  of  fact;  and  none  of  the  extracts 
of  conversation  given  either  heretofore  or  hereafter  in  this 
volume  came  from  either  of  them  in  the  remotest  degree. 
Indeed,  it  may  as  well  be  stated  here  as  elsewhere  that 

61 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

significant  utterances  quoted  in  this  book  are,  of  course, 
given  without  the  violation  of  any  confidence.  This  state- 
ment is,  no  doubt,  quite  unnecessary,  but  is  made  out  of 
excess  of  caution. 

Interesting  as  are  the  personalities  of  General  Grode- 
koff  and  Admiral  Alexieff,  so  much  space  would  not  be 
devoted  to  them  merely  on  their  personal  account;  for 
this  volume  is  neither  biography  nor  character  study,  and 
either  or  both  of  these  men  may  to-morrow  be  removed 
to  other  fields  of  duty,  and  at  best,  of  course,  as  is  the  case 
with  all  of  us,  the  period  of  human  life  will  soon  take  them 
out  of  active  work.  But  these  careful  descriptions  of 
them  are  set  forth  because  they  are  genuine  types  of  the 
highest  class  of  Russian  administrators.  Should  either  of 
them  die  or  be  removed  their  places  will  be  filled  with 
men  so  much  of  the  same  stamp,  quality,  and  experience 
that,  allowing  for  the  difference  of  personality,  their  succes- 
sors might  be  the  same  men.  It  is  the  type,  the  quality, 
the  preparedness  of  the  men  whom  Russia  puts  in  charge 
of  her  foreign  business  that  these  sketches  of  Alexieff  and 
Grodekoff  are  designed  to  bring  to  the  mind  of  the  reader. 

You  may  credit  all  that  you  read  in  detraction  of  Rus- 
sian officials,  if  you  like;  but  you  may  credit  it  and  still 
understand  that,  in  her  important  positions,  and  particu- 
larly at  her  strategic  outposts  of  empire,  where  she  is 
coming  in  contact  with  the  other  powers  of  the  world, 
Russia  will  have  just  such  men  as  Alexieff  and  Grodekoff; 
for  throughout  the  vast  web  of  the  Russian  administra- 
tive system  her  agents  undergo  every  possible  test,  are 
subjected  to  every  possible  temptation;  and  it  appears  to 
be  the  purpose  of  the  government  to  place  at  critical 
points,  like  Manchuria,  about  which  are  swirling  the  am- 
bitions, schemes,  and  physical  activities  of  other  nations, 
none  but  those  whom  experience  has  shown  to  be  the 
strongest  men  in  the  whole  administrative  estabHshment, 
civil,  naval,  and  military,  throughout  the  dominions  of 
the  Czar. 

6? 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Let  us  now  take  a  typical  railway  administrator,  who  is 
neither  governor  or  engineer  or  soldier,  and  yet  who  is 
every  one  of  them  in  education,  experience,  and  natural 
aptitude.  An  excellent  type  of  the  civil  officer  that 
Russia  sends  to  do  her  work  is  Mr.  Girshmann,  the 
administrator  of  the  southern  divisions  of  the  Manchurian 
railway.  A  very  hearty,  ofif-hand  man  you  will  find 
him.  He,  too,  was  a  soldier  in  the  Turkish  war;  he,  too, 
has  seen  service  in  the  Caucasus;  he,  too,  has  constructed 
other  railroads  for  Russia;  he,  too,  has  read  many  books, 
and  is  instructed  by  personal  experience.  He  gives  you 
the  impression  of  steady  and  informed  intelligence, 
thoroughly  awake  and  well  in  hand.  Like  Grodekoff 
and  Alexieff,  he  is  an  incessant  worker.  Having  had  a 
hard  day  and  night,  the  interpreter  wanted  a  little  rest. 

"Why,"  exclaimed  Mr.  Girshmann,  "I  have  not  had  a 
wink  of  sleep  for  two  nights  running,  and  I  feel  quite 
fresh." 

The  occasion  for  this  unusual  exertion  was  the  destruc- 
tion of  his  grades  and  bridges  by  the  flood  of  August,  1901. 

The  energy  of  this  administrator,  his  attention  to  de- 
tails, and  his  comprehensive  knowledge  suggested  inquiry 
concerning  him.  It  was  found  that  he  was  at  work  usual- 
ly ten  hours  out  of  the  twenty-four,  every  day  of  the  year. 
Frequently  he  works  as  much  as  sixteen  hours  a  day,  a 
thing  you  will  not  understand  until  you  see  with  your  own 
eyes  what  he  has  to  do.  Every  day,  ten  hours  of  work 
always,  and  sometimes  much  more — very  much  like  an 
ambitious  young  American  building  his  fortune  in  one  of 
the  great  cities  of  the  United  States;  and  yet  this  man, 
more  than  fifty  years  of  age,  is  an  imperial  railway  ad- 
ministrator in  south  Manchuria. 

Such  energy  and  application  are  not  characteristic  of 
the  Russian,  however;  the  reverse  is  very  much  the  rule. 
Indeed,  his  slothfulness  is  one  of  the  striking  charac- 
teristics of  the  Slav. 

After  learning  about  Mr.  Girshmann,  you  would  not  be 

63 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

surprised  to  find  that,  though  the  railway  was  then  only 
in  the  process  of  construction,  it  was,  nevertheless,  haul- 
ing local  traffic  for  more  than  two  hundred  miles,  from 
its  southern  terminus  at  Port  Arthur.  Although  the  track 
was  then  given  up  to  the  construction  and  material 
trains,  the  income  from  this  local  traffic,  for  three  months 
of  the  spring  of  1901,  was  700,000  rubles  ($350,000).  This 
gives  you  a  hint  of  the  paying  possibilities  of  this  property 
when  completed.  It  gives  you  a  hint,  too,  of  what  this 
railway  will  do  for  the  development  of  the  resources  and 
the  people  of  Manchuria.  It  gives  you  a  further  hint  of 
what  the  road  will  do  in  the  development  of  the  commerce 
of  the  world. 

"The  road,"  said  Mr.  Girshmann,  "will  pay  very 
heavily.  You  can  see  for  yourself,  on  these  southern  di- 
visions, how  enormous  the  traffic  will  be.  Look  at  that" 
— pointing  to  large  piles  of  beans  in  bags,  tobacco  in 
bales,  native  wine  in  boxed  bottles  and  casks — "and  at 
that" — pointing  to  a  side  track  crowded  with  cars, 
every  one  loaded  to  its  utmost  capacity  with  freight,  all 
waiting  to  be  moved.  "Surely,  you  have  noticed  con- 
siderable passenger  traffic  on  these  southern  divisions. 
You  ask  what  will  be  the  government's  policy  as  to  tariff 
duties  on  imports.  That  is  not  within  my  province. 
But  there  is,  at  the  present  time  at  least,  no  reason  for 
it;  for  we  are  as  yet  an  importing  nation,  so  far  as  Man- 
churia is  concerned.  In  fact,  generally,  Russia  cannot 
be  said  to  be  an  exporting  nation  yet.  What  our  con- 
dition in  that  respect  will  be  fifty  or  a  hundred  years 
from  now  is  a  different  matter.  What  our  final  policy 
will  be,  who  shall  say  ?  Russian  history  will  show  you  that 
events  have  sliaped  our  policy  in  spite  of  ourselves.  A 
man  like  me  must  act — not  dream.  Here  we  are  and 
here  is  my  daily  task.  I  am  happy  in  it  and  I  hope  I 
am  useful  to  my  country  and  my  Czar.  What  it  will 
lead  to  is  in  God's  hands."  That  expression  is  thor- 
oughly Russian.     From  priest   and  peasant  to  the  Czar 

64 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

himself  it  is  always,  "as  God  wishes,"  or  "it  is  in  God's 
hands." 

The  passenger  traffic  to  which  Mr.  Girshmann  called 
attention  was,  of  course,  almost  exclusively  Chinese. 
The  German  representative  of  the  great  German  firm 
of  Kuntz  &  Albers  was  observed;  several  Russian  officers, 
of  course,  were  present;  but  the  great  bulk  of  the  pas- 
sengers were  Chinamen.  Here  was  a  Chinese  merchant 
travelling  to  New  -  Chwang,  mere  a  Chinese  official  on 
his  way  to  Pekin;  for  wherever  the  railroad  has  gone 
in  a  country  peopled  by  the  Chinese,  they  have  taken 
very  kindly  to  it,  after  they  have  failed  to  destroy  it. 
On  the  road  from  Tien-Tsin  to  Pekin,  for  example,  you 
may  observe  them  waiting  at  the  station,  exactly  as 
Americans  do  here;  rushing  for  the  cars,  exactly  as  we 
do  here;  trying  to  get  the  best  seats,  just  as  an  excursion 
crowd  does  in  our  own  country.  But  the  Russian  manage- 
ment of  them  seems  to  suit  them  better  than  their  treat- 
ment by  any  other  Europeans  which  the  writer  has  ever 
observed.  Indeed,  the  hostility  with  which  the  China- 
man regards  European  physical  encroachments,  like  the 
building  of  new  railroads,  etc.,  in  any  part  of  China 
(which  hostility  you  feel  in  the  very  air),  was  not  ap- 
parent in  Manchuria.  As  has  been  observed,  many 
Russian  towns  were  building;  and  the  Chinese  appeared 
to  take  very  kindly  to  it,  even  when  they  were  not  em- 
ployed in  the  work. 

The  town  of  Harbin,  in  the  exact  centre  of  Manchuria, 
is  by  far  the  best  illustration  of  Russian  constructive- 
ness  in  the  interior.  It  has  well-built  houses.  It  is  ad- 
mirably laid  out.  Its  streets  have  the  characteristic 
Russian  breadth  and  generosity.  Its  trade  is  already 
active.  Even  in  1901,  when  its  building  was  not  yet 
completed,  it  had  well  -  equipped  stores.  The  Russo- 
Chinese  Bank  was  already  there.  The  Greek  Orthodox 
Church  was  there,  too.  To  the  person  familiar  with 
Russian  methods  in  a  new  country  it  is,  perhaps,  un- 

5  65 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

necessary  to  mention  that  these  financial  and  spiritual 
agencies  of  the  Russian  people  had  already  established 
themselves.  The  Russo-Chinese  bank ,  in  1 90 1 ,  was  housed 
in  some  not-imposing  Chinese-constructed  buildings;  but 
it  is  said  that  at  this  focus-point  of  constructive  activity 
in  Manchuria  this  branch  of  the  imperial  finance  ministry 
was  to  have  in  a  short  season  very  handsome  quarters. 
The  Russian  church  also  was  a  temporary  afifair  —  much 
more  unsubstantial  than  the  church  edifices  of  other  and 
comparatively  unimportant  Russian  Manchurian  towns. 
But  as  soon  as  the  Russians  can  get  a  breathing  spell  at 
this  point,  about  which  at  present  their  energies  most 
actively  play  and  swirl,  a  cathedral  of  the  Greek  Orthodox 
Church  is  to  be  erected,  so  that,  in  the  centre  of  Harbin,  an 
architectural  spectacle  will  present  itself  with  which  every 
traveller  within  the  Czar's  dominions,  whether  in  European 
Russia  or  Siberia  or  elsewhere,  is  familiar  —  a  splendid 
church  building,  noble  in  dimensions  and  magnificent 
in  equipment.  What  Harbin  will  be  eventually  was,  in 
1 90 1,  indicated  by  the  extraordinary  activity  in  the 
construction  of  brick  buildings  in  New  Harbin;  for  it 
must  be  known  that  there  are  two  or  three  or  more 
Harbins,  all  within  a  stone's  -  throw  of  one  another. 
Eventually  they  will  all  be  joined  together.  In  short,  at 
Harbin  and  at  Dalni,  and,  indeed,  in  other  towns  in  Man- 
churia, Russia  appears  to  be  doing  with  autocratic  in- 
stantaneousness  what  other  pioneer  peoples  do  gradually. 

The  designers  of  Harbin  have  not  forgotten  the  amuse- 
ments of  the  people;  and  a  piece  of  ground  where,  genera- 
tions ago,  the  Chinese  had  planted  a  great  row  of  trees, 
has  been  made  into  a  park,  with  band-stands,  children's 
swings,  seats  in  the  shade,  and  all  of  the  conveniences 
of  popular  pleasure  with  which  we  equip  our  parks  here 
in  America. 

Of  course,  Harbin  is  the  railway  headquarters  in  Man- 
churia. It  is  from  here  that  the  provisions  and  material 
for  Mveral  divisions  of  the  road,  east,  west,  and  south  of 

66 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Harbin  are  distributed.  And  this  may  give  Harbin  a  so 
much  greater  appearance  of  importance  than  it  would 
otherwise  have  that  perhaps  we  ought  not  to  take  it  as  a 
measure  of  the  ordinary  Russian  urban  achievement  in 
Manchuria.  On  the  other  hand,  this  town  will  not 
appear  very  imposing  to  the  American  or  European  who 
now  passes  through  it  on  the  completed  railway,  coming, 
as  he  does,  fresh  from  towns  and  cities  long  since  built 
and  administered.  But  it  is  nothing  short  of  imposing 
in  comparison  with  the  condition  which  preceded  it. 
It  is  an  admirable  work,  when  we  bear  in  mind,  as  the 
observer  of  the  Russian  advance  in  Manchuria  must  al- 
ways do,  that  on  the  spot  where  Harbin  stands  there 
was  little  safety,  either  to  person  or  property,  less  than  a 
decade  ago.* 

'  Two  considerable  flouring  -  mills  have  been  built  in  Harbin 
since  the  author  was  there,  one  of  them,  it  is  said,  with  a  daily 
capacity  of  several  hundred  barrels. 


VI 

RESULTS    OF    RUSSIAN    RAILWAY    ADVANCE 

THE  results  of  Russian  railway  advance  were,  in  1901, 
by  far  the  most  general  and  absorbing  subjects  of 
conversation  among  non-Russian  foreigners  in  the  Far 
East.  Indeed,  from  the  beginning  of  the  Siberian  road, 
the  consequences  of  this  extraordinary  enterprise  have 
occasioned  anxious  thought  in  the  minds  of  every  care- 
ful student  of  the  world's  material  activities.  And,  as 
will  be  seen,  Russia's  Manchurian  railroad  is  only  another 
step  in  her  railway  extension  to  the  Orient,  of  which  the 
Siberian  railway  was  the  first  step.  The  purposes  of  the 
Manchurian  railway,  as  given  by  Engineer-in-Chief  Tugo- 
vitch,  have  already  been  set  out,  as  have  the  comments 
of  Administrator  Girshmann.  But,  perhaps,  an  indepen- 
dent analysis,  illustrated  by  various  observations  made  on 
the  ground,  may  also  be  helpful  to  an  understanding  of 
the  meaning  and  effect  of  this  greatest  agency  of  civiliza- 
tion which  the  Czar  has  employed  in  the  Russian  advance 
upon  the  Pacific. 

To  what,  then,  will  this  railroad  which  Russia  is  build- 
ing through  Manchuria  lead?  What  results  will  follow 
its  completion  and  operation?  He  is  a  daring  reasoner 
who  would  attempt  to  deduce  all  the  consequences.  The 
man  would  be  called  an  immoderate  dreamer  who  should 
suggest  to  the  world,  which  looks  upon  this  industrial 
phenomena  from  afar,  what  appear  to  be  cer'^ainties  to 
those  who  survey  the  ground  itself.  No  one  but  two  or 
three  prophets  of  empire,  such  as  Russia,  with  all  her 
deficiencies,  is  so  fortunate  as  always  to  have  about  the 

68 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Czar  at  St.  Petersburg,  understood  the  sure  results  of 
the  great  Siberian  railroad.  Most  men  regarded  it  as  a 
military  enterprise  only;  although  why  Russia  should 
exhaust  herself  in  military  enterprises  which  in  them- 
selves would  bear  no  fruit  seems  not  to  have  suggested 
itself  to  most  non-Russian  thinkers. 

But  the  Siberian  railway  was  no  sooner  completed  to 
Irkutsk  than  a  steadily  swelling  volume  of  Russian  emi- 
grants began  to  pour  all  over  the  agricultural  portions  of 
western  and  central  Siberia,  irrigating  that  neglected  land 
with  the  fertilizing  fluid  of  human  effort.  No  sooner  was 
the  railroad  extended  to  Stretensk,  at  the  head  of  the 
navigation  of  the  Shilka  and  Amur  rivers  (hundreds  of 
miles  east  of  Irkutsk,  and  yet  almost  thousands  of  miles 
from  the  Pacific),  than  this  current  of  Slav  peasantry 
ran  still  farther  eastward,  spreading  itself  to  right  and 
left,  until  finally  the  Russian  agriculturist  and  miner  were 
slothfuUy  at  work,  even  to  the  very  shores  of  the  ocean. 

Trade,  which  had  been  nothing  but  barter,  rapidly  in- 
creased to  the  dignity  of  commerce.  Fields  which  for 
centuries  had  been  only  pasture-lands  grew  golden  with 
grain,  even  under  the  negligent  and  wasteful  methods 
of  the  Russian  farmer.  Mines  which,  since  the  days  of 
Ivan  the  Terrible,  had  been  little  more  than  rumor  be- 
came richly  productive,  notwithstanding  the  stupid  legal 
restrictions  and  the  sleepy  Muscovite  inertia  which  ex- 
ploited them.  Cities  with  beautiful  homes,  astonishing 
public  buildings,  commercial  houses  so  considerable  that 
you  must  see  them  to  believe  that  they  exist,  and  temples 
of  worship  magnificent  in  size,  decoration,  and  design, 
sprang  into  being  where  not  so  long  ago  the  nomad  camp- 
ed or  the  Chinaman  revelled  in  his  village  dirt.  Such 
had  been  the  practical  results  of  the  building  of  the 
Siberian  railroad.  Such  were  the  results  of  the  build- 
ing of  our  own  transcontinental  lines,  except,  of  course, 
that  the  greater  intelligence,  greater  energy,  and  higher 
general  sum  of  modern  qualities  which  distinguish  the 

69 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

American  from  every  other  people  produced  along  our 
transcontinental  lines  consequences  larger,  higher,  more 
miracle-like. 

But,  without  entering  into  speculation  which  might  be 
disputed,  what  are  the  obvious  consequences,  the  small 
and  immediate  effects,  which  will  be  produced  by  the 
Manchurian  railway?  It  is  one  of  the  few  defects  of 
our  race  and  our  present  system  that  we  look  only  to 
immediate  results.  We  are  intent  only  upon  "the  in- 
stant need  of  things,"  as  Kipling  puts  it.  It  is  one  of  our 
shortcomings,  which  many  a  temporary  set-back  must 
remedy,  that  we  do  not  take  thought  for  the  morrow. 
The  Enghsh  look  farther  ahead  in  foreign  matters  than 
do  we  as  a  nation,  but  even  the  English  do  not  have  so 
much  concern  for  distant  results  of  her  policies  as  do 
the  Russians.  A  keen  English  observer  records  of  an 
English  Oriental  merchant  who,  in  response  to  the  point- 
ing out  of  the  decline  of  British  commerce  in  the  Far 
East,  unless  improvement  occurred  in  the  out-of-date 
methods  of  English  trade  conditions,  said:  "What  do  I 
care  for  the  future?  We  are  not  here  for  the  benefit  of 
posterity."  But  we  Americans  are  already  improving  in 
this,  and  our  foreign  commercial  necessity  will  some  day 
make  our  foreign  commercial  policy  rational,  continuous, 
and  far-sighted. 

But  we  are  examining  the  railway  features  of  the  Rus- 
sian advance  towards  the  Pacific.  Let  us,  then,  look  at 
the  immediate  aspects  of  this  railway,  which  is  by  far  the 
greatest  single  work  of  construction  recently  accom- 
plished anywhere  in  the  world. 

First  of  all,  the  road  branches  off  from  the  Siberian 
railroad  about  one  thousand  miles  from  Vladivostock 
and  takes  a  practically  straight  course,  a  little  to  the  north 
of  the  middle  of  Manchuria,  to  Vladivostock.  Thus  the 
port  of  Vladivostock,  on  the  Pacific,  is  directly  connected 
with  Moscow,  St.  Petersburg,  Berlin,  and  Paris,  without 
varying  the  mode  of  transportation,  or  even  changing  cars. 

70 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

In  the  second  place,  this  road,  on  its  way  to  Vladivo- 
stock,  cuts  a  great  artery  of  Manchuria,  the  Sungari  River, 
several  hundred  miles  south  of  the  point  where  this  prin- 
cipal commercial  tributary  of  the  Amur  empties  into  the 
larger  stream.  Thus,  water  communication  is  secured 
with  the  rich  mining  and  agricultural  Russian  provinces 
north  of  the  Amur  River  (for  the  Amur,  impracticable 
for  most  of  its  course  on  account  of  sand-bars  and  rocks, 
is  profitably  navigable  for  several  hundred  miles  from 
where  this  Manchurian  river  empties  into  it). 

But  the  harbor  at  Vladivostock  is  frozen  part  of  the 
year,  and  so,  in  the  third  place,  the  Russians  were  build- 
ing, at  the  time  of  the  author's  investigations,  and  have 
now  completed,  another  branch  of  this  road  from  Harbin, 
the  point  where  the  Sungari  River  is  crossed,  almost  due 
south  to  Port  Arthur  and  Dalni,  on  the  never-frozen  sea. 
This  branch  passes  through  the  most  populous  and  pro- 
ductive portions  of  Manchuria,  and  connects  Russia  and 
all  of  Europe  with  splendid  ports,  on  Oriental  waters,  open 
all  the  year  round.  Changed  conditions  have  changed 
Russia's  plans,  and  this  new  branch  now  becomes  itself 
the  principal  line. 

First  of  all,  then,  Oriental  passenger  travel  to  Europe 
is  turned  westward  through  the  Russian  Empire.  A 
quick,  comparatively  pleasant,  and  comparatively  cheap 
method  of  transportation  is  provided  for  all  European 
business-men  who  want  to  reach  Asia,  and  for  all  Asiatic 
business-men  who  want  to  visit  Europe.  Personal  com- 
munication is  established  between  the  civilization  of  Eu- 
rope, on  the  one  hand,  and  the  chaos  of  vital  humanity  and 
disintegrating  institutions  in  the  Orient,  on  the  other  hand. 
Think  of  the  Oriental,  for  ages  separated  from  the  rest  of 
the  world,  travelling  from  Pekin  to  Paris  in  a  fortnight. 
A  true  Arabian  Nights  tale  this,  and  more  astonishing. 
The  profound  significance  of  this  circumstance  was  prob- 
ably not  foreseen  by  its  Russian  creators.  It  is  one  of  those 
larger   meanings   which    always    accompany    any   really 

71 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

great  work  of  man ;  the  achievement  of  that  work  always 
has  results  so  vast  and  momentous  as  to  startle  those  who 
undertook  the  original  enterprise.  Witness  the  immediate 
purpose  and  final  results  of  Bismarck's  plan  of  German 
federation ;  witness  the  original  intention  and  the  ultimate 
result  of  our  late  war  with  Spain ;  witness  the  development 
of  all  large  and  permanent  national  policies;  witness  the 
original  purpose  and  final  results  of  any  of  the  great  move- 
ments of  history. 

So  of  these  Russian  railways  in  Asia.  Already  passen- 
ger-trains running  westward  are  well  filled  with  European 
business -men  returning  home;  and  among  them,  even 
now,  is  a  sprinkling  of  Chinese  merchants  on  their  way  to 
the  capitals  of  Europe.  Even  in  1901  the  passenger-trains 
travelling  eastward  on  the  Siberian  road  were  well  filled 
with  Russians,  Germans,  Frenchmen,  an  occasional  Eng- 
lishman, and  sometimes  an  American  journeying  tow- 
ards the  Orient — this,  too,  when  the  road  was  uncom- 
pleted, and  with  days  and  weeks  of  vexatious  discomfort 
on  forest-fringed  rivers.  For  remember  that,  until  last 
year,  a  hard  journey  of  many  days  on  the  Amur  and 
Shilka  rivers  was  necessary  before  you  could  board  the 
Siberian  train  at  Stretensk. 

With  the  Manchurian  line  finished,  nearly  all  the  busi- 
ness-men of  Europe  and  China  will  travel  by  this  route. 
They  can  go  from  Pekin  to  Moscow  in  three  weeks,  in  trains 
equipped  with  most  modern  conveniences  and  luxuries. 
Where,  until  now,  one  Chinese  merchant  visited  European 
markets  in  person,  hereafter  one  hundred  will  do  so. 
Where,  formerly,  one  European  business-man  investigated 
commercial  conditions  in  China  in  person,  a  hundred  will 
do  so  hereafter;  and  all  of  them  who  take  this  trip  will  pass 
through  Russian  dominion,  breathe  Russian  atmosphere, 
be  impressed  with  Russian  influence  and  power. 

A  branch  of  the  Manchurian  railway  has  been  built 
to  the  port  of  New-Chwang,  hitherto  the  commercial 
door  through  which  most  imports  into  Manchuria  were 

72 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

admitted.  From  this  port  a  well-constructed  railroad 
runs  to  the  very  gates  of  Pekin  itself.  This  line  was 
built  by  English  engineers,  under  authority  of  the  Chinese 
government,  and  its  bonds  were  held  by  a  British  syndi- 
cate under  a  contract  between  the  Chinese  government 
and  the  Hong-Kong  and  Shanghai  Banking  Corporation, 
the  great  Enghsh  financial  institution  of  the  Orient. 
Rumors  were  current  in  1901  that  this  English  syndicate 
was  ready  to  sell  its  investments  to  the  highest  bidder, 
just  as  the  owners  of  English  ship-lines  in  the  Orient 
seem  to  be  willing  to  sell  out  to  the  highest  bidder.  We 
all  know  who  that  highest  bidder  will  ultimately  prove 
to  be.     It  will  be  Russia. 

The  Chinese  Emperor  has  a  richly  constructed  special 
car  on  this  railroad  to  Pekin.  Immediately  after  the 
Boxer  troubles  the  administration  of  this  road  was  taken 
over  by  the  allies,  and  its  active  operations  intrusted 
by  agreement  to  the  English  military  forces.  This  mil- 
itary operation  of  the  road  by  the  English  was  still  effec- 
tive in  the  summer  of  190 1.  In  company  with  the  Eng- 
lish general  in  command  of  the  British  forces  in  China,  a 
trip  was  made  on  this  car  from  Tien-Tsin  to  Pekin.  Re- 
cent from  a  journey  over  the  Siberian  railway  from  Mos- 
cow, fresh  from  the  scenes  attending  the  building  of 
grades,  the  bridging  of  rivers,  the  laying  of  rails,  and 
other  incidents  of  the  construction  of  the  Manchurian 
railway,  it  was  difficult  not  to  associate  this  continued 
journey  to  Pekin  with  those  great  lines.  Other  passenger- 
cars  were  filled  with  English  officers  on  leave  of  absence, 
going  to  Pekin  from  posts  at  which  they  had  been  recently 
stationed  near  Manchuria. 

One  could  not  help  remembering  that  at  the  World's 
Fair  in  Paris  a  rolling  panorama  of  the  Siberian  railway 
was  exhibited  by  the  Russian  government,  taking  the 
travellers  from  Moscow  directly  by  rail  to  the  very  gates 
of  the  Chinese  capital.  And  it  is  not  unreasonable  to 
foresee  a  joiirney  of  the  Chinese  ruler  to  the  courts  and 

73 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

capitals  of  Europe.  When  this  imperial  journey  takes 
place — indeed,  when  any  man  takes  this  trip — the  first 
flag  that  greets  his  vision  when  he  passes  the  Great  Wall 
will  be  the  colors  of  Russia.  As  he  speeds  upon  his  jour- 
ney he  will  behold  at  every  station  the  uniform  of  Russia; 
every  hour  he  will  hear  the  speech  of  Russia.  For  days 
and  nights  and  nights  and  days  he  will  pass  through  the 
unending  territories  of  Russia.  As  he  rolls  rapidly  west- 
ward, Russian  conditions  increase;  Russian  flags  multiply; 
Russian  atmosphere  thickens,  until  finally,  when  he  steps 
from  his  train  in  Moscow,  he  feels  the  very  beat  of  the 
heart  of  the  Russian  nation. 

It  will  be  hard  for  that  man  ever  to  get  away  from  the 
feeling  that  the  great  power  of  the  future  is  Russia.  No 
ordinary  Oriental  mind  will  be  able  to  overcome  the  im- 
pression that  the  other  nations  of  Europe  are  but  inferior 
states  compared  with  Russia  and  that  the  bearded  Slav, 
notwithstanding  his  defects,  is  nevertheless  the  coming 
autocrat  of  all  the  Asias.  And  if  that  conviction  is 
once  fixed  in  the  Eastern  mind  it  will  have  an  important 
if  not  determining  influence  not  only  upon  the  com- 
mercial conditions,  but  upon  the  destiny  of  the  world. 
The  first  thing,  then,  that  is  the  plain  result  of  the  Man- 
churian  road  is  that  the  quickest — and  in  any  case  the 
only — overland  business  route  to  China  is  through  the 
dominions  under  the  protection  and  surrounded  by  the 
influences  of  the  Czar. 

An  English  merchant,  a  German  investigator,  and  an 
American  traveller  were  sitting  under  the  tree  before  the 
English  Club,  looking  out  upon  the  charming  bay  of 
Chefoo.  What  were  they  discussing?  Russia,  of  course. 
In  the  Far  East  everybody  is  discussing  Russia  wherever 
you  go,  and  the  Manchtirian-Siberian  railway  as  the  most 
conspicuous  illustration  of  her  activity.  The  Englishman 
closed  an  intemperate  assault  on  Russia  as  follows: 

"She  will  flood  Oriental  markets  with  goods  from 
Moscow  and  Tver,  Smolensk  and   Lodz,  and  her  other 

74 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

manufacturing  centres,  as  she  will  flood  China  with  her 
soldiers." 

"That  opinion  seems  absurd  to  me,"  said  the  German. 
"It  is  unprofitable  for  freight  to  be  shipped  to  the  Orient 
over  the  Siberian  -  Manchurian  road.  The  distance  is 
too  great,  and  freight  charges,  if  based  on  nothing  more 
than  operating  expenses  only,  would  be  too  heavy.  The 
world's  trade  with  the  Orient,  so  far  as  European  exports 
to  China  or  any  other  parts  of  the  Far  East  are  con- 
cerned, must  long  continue  to  be  by  water." 

The  careful  student  of  traffic  who  goes  over  the  ground 
will  be  inclined  to  agree  with  this  German  opinion.  The 
Siberian-Manchurian  road  will  bring  very  little  European 
merchandise  into  the  Orient  for  some  time  to  come. 
It  is  too  long  a  haul.  At  lowest  possible  rates,  the 
freight  charge  is  so  heavy  that  any  thought  of  competi- 
tion with  ship-lines  for  that  class  of  business  does  not 
appear  possible,  for  the  present  at  least.  Large  Oriental 
shipments  of  freight  will  go  westward  by  the  road  to 
Europe,  but  not  the  reverse.  For  example,  all  of  the 
finer  brands  of  tea,  which  are  so  much  injured  by  moisture 
when  transported  by-  ship,  will  hereafter  be  shipped 
very  largely  by  this  railroad.  Indeed,  heretofore  a  con- 
siderable part  of  this  traffic  has  been  by  camel  caravan 
across  the  desert  for  many  weeks,  until  the  Siberian 
railroad  was  reached,  and  then  by  rail. 

As.  elsewhere.  Oriental  exports  to  Europe,  and  all  kinds 
of  freight  requiring  quick  despatch,  will  also  go  by  the 
Siberian  railroad;  but  European  exports  to  the  Orient,  in 
whose  markets  cheapness  is  an  element  of  such  moment, 
must  for  the  present  continue  to  be  by  water.  This  is  a 
fact  of  first-class  importance  to  America.  We  are  less 
than  five  thousand  miles  from  Oriental  markets,  and  our 
competitors — Germany,  England,  Russia,  and  France — 
are,  practically,  eight  or  nine  thousand  miles  away  by 
water.  Comparatively,  Oriental  markets  are  right  at 
our  door;  and  very  far  away,  indeed,  from  our  European 

75 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

rivals.  And,  for  purposes  of  freight  traffic,  the  Siberian- 
Manchurian  railroad  does  not  bring  our  European  com- 
petitors any  closer  to  the  markets  for  which  we  are 
mutually  contending. 

"Why,  then,"  said  the  Englishman,  "is  Russia  building 
this  road?     Not  for  fun,  I  think!" 

"Oh  no,  not  for  fun — certainly  not!"  responded  the 
German,  "but  for  very  far-seeing,  long-headed  reasons, 
in  which  Russia  surpasses  us  all.  In  the  first  place, 
Russia  considers  nothing  hers  which  she  does  not  control 
in  a  visible,  tangible,  material  way;  in  the  second  place, 
she  is  always  looking  one  or  two  centuries  ahead;  in  the 
third  place,  the  Russian  people  are  hardly  a  people  yet — 
they  are  still  in  the  process  of  being  compounded.  Our 
children's  children  may  find  themselves  worn  out  when 
these  thick-skulled,  hairy,  no-nerved  Slavs  are  just  coming 
into  their  prime;  and,  similarly,  our  posterity  may  find 
themselves  without  markets  when  the  future  Russian 
may  find  himself  in  the  actual  possession  of  the  only 
markets  of  the  world  now  capable  of  seizure." 

This  bit  of  commercial  philosophy  is  given  for  what  it  is 
worth.  But,  confining  ourselves  to  the  Manchurian  road 
at  present,  it  appears  that  it  and  the  Siberian  road  will 
serve  as  highways  for  the  introduction  of  European  and 
American  products  into  the  very  shops  of  the  merchants 
and  homes  of  the  people  in  the  interior  of  Manchuria, 
and  into  the  markets  of  Siberia  itself,  until  a  point  is 
reached  where  American  merchants  cannot  afford  to 
ship  farther  westward  and  where  Moscow  merchants  can 
afford  to  pay  the  railway  freights.  And  since  America 
is  thousands  of  miles  nearer  to  the  Orient  by  water  than 
any  European  rival,  including  Russia  itself,  these  Russian 
railways  through  Manchuria  and  Siberia  would  naturally 
become  the  principal  distributing  agencies  for  American 
goods. 

But  two  circumstances  can  prevent  this  result:  First, 
the  placing  of  Port  Arthur,  Dalni,  and  New-Chwang  under 

76 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

a  Russian  tariff  so  that  American  importers  will  have  to 
pay  heavy  duties,  whereas  Russian  importers  will  have 
to  pay  nothing  at  all  on  landing  their  goods  at  these 
Russian-Asiatic  ports;  or,  second,  a  system  of  differential 
railroad  rates  by  which,  even  if  the  ports  remain  open, 
the  goods  of  every  other  nation  except  Russia  will  have 
to  pay  such  extravagant  freight  charges  that  none  but 
Russian  merchandise  can  penetrate  the  interior  along  the 
line  of  the  road.  But  if  railway  rates  remain  uniform  and 
ports  remain  open,  American  commerce  along  the  lines 
of  these  roads  will  not  only  be  considerably  increased, 
but  actually  multiplied  manyfold. 

"Do  you  not  think  that  the  long-hoped-for  reform  of 
internal  communication  in  China  will  begin  as  a  natural 
result  of  the  railroad  through  Manchuria?"  was  a  question 
asked  of  one  of  the  deepest  students  of  Oriental  com- 
merce. (The  greatest  practical  difficulty,  you  know,  in 
extending  commerce  among  China's  four  hundred  millions 
is  to  get  the  goods  into  the  interior;  an  internal  trans- 
portation tax  on  foreign  goods  —  sometimes  irregular, 
exorbitant,  and  corrupt — consumes  all  the  profits  before 
imports  penetrate  two  hundred  miles  from  any  port.) 

"Yes,"  was  the  reply,  "I  have  thought  of  that  myself, 
and.  Englishman  though  I  am,  I  will  admit  that  if  the 
Manchurian  railway  would  break  up  the  ruinous,  foolish, 
and  villanous  obstruction  to  foreign  commerce  in  the  in- 
terior, the  world  should  accept  it  as  a  blessing,  notwith- 
standing its  menace  to  the  supremacy  of  other  powers 
in  the  Orient;  and  no  possible  help  to  the  Chinese  could 
be  of  such  far-reaching  benefit." 

Let  us  see  just  what  this  means.  The  Manchurian 
railway  runs  through  about  seventeen  hundred  miles  of 
Chinese  provinces,  mostly  populated.  Over  this  region 
has  spread  that  net-work  of  commercial  obstruction 
which  prevents  internal  foreign  commerce  all  over  China 
— that  is  to  say,  that  heretofore  the  Chinese  merchant 
who  wanted  to  transport  foreign  goods  from  one  point 

77 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

to  another  in  China,  has  had  to  do  it  by  carts  over  un- 
imaginable roads  (let  us  rather  say  imaginary  roads), 
or  by  boats,  or,  what  is  more  usual,  on  the  backs  of 
coolies;  and  he  has  been,  and  still  is,  literally  "held  up," 
every  few  stages,  by  collectors  of  transportation  tax. 
(This  is  the  famous  "likin"  tax.)  This  tax,  even  if  it 
were  legally  charged  and  honestly  collected,  would  be  a 
serious  enough  burden  on  commerce  to  discourage  trade 
for  any  great  distance  in  the  interior;  but  the  "likin" 
tax  serves  as  an  excuse  for  numerous  irregular  collectors 
to  still  further  burden  all  transportation  of  merchandise 
into  the  interior  by  exacting,  under  the  guise  of  the 
tax,  arbitrary,  illegal,  and  corrupt  charges. 

But  the  irregular  collector  of  corrupt  transportation 
tax  does  not  "hold  up"  the  train  of  the  Manchurian 
railroad;  it  thunders  by  him  unheeding.  Indeed,  the 
traffic  over  the  road  is  free  from  the  regular  "likin,"  as 
will  be  seen  when  we  come  to  the  railway  agreement.  The 
merchant  gets  his  goods  as  quickly  as  possible  to  the  rail- 
way, and,  for  a  fixed  and  definite  price,  his  merchandise 
is  transported  to  distant  points.  Not  by  any  other  law, 
therefore,  than  the  irresistible  operation  of  practical  prog- 
ress, the  reform  of  this  ancient  abuse  of  the  whole  Empire 
of  China  has  begun.  And  when  you  reflect  that,  if 
transportation  of  imports  were  free  throughout  the  Chinese 
Empire,  foreign  imports  to  the  Chinese  people  would  in- 
crease almost  immediately,  with  little  effort,  from  two 
hundred  and  fifty  million  dollars  a  year  (the  present 
amount)  to  a  thousand  million  dollars  a  year  (and  this 
is  the  conservative  estimate  of  the  most  conservative 
minds),  you  will  understand  what  the  working  out  of 
such  reform  would  mean  to  the  producers  of  America, 
who  are  many  thousand  miles  nearer  these  markets  than 
any  of  their  competitors. 

Think  of  America  with  a  Chinese  export  trade  of  one 
hundred  millions  a  year — of  two  hundred  millions  a  year! 
And  yet,  unless  our  statesmanship  is  unequal  to  our  op- 

78 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

portunit\%  we  shall  ultimately  have  a  greater  commerce 
than  that. 

The  stimulus  to  the  commercial  spirit  of  the  people,  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  deadening  effect  upon  govern- 
mental obstruction  on  the  other,  which  the  railroad  is 
producing  already  in  Manchuria,  are  astonishing  only  be- 
cause we  do  not  think  of  these  things  till  we  are  brought 
face  to  face  with  them.  The  local  merchant  who  thought 
no  market  possible  to  him  except  that  within  the  reach 
of  his  cart  suddenly  finds  commercial  limitations  lifted, 
and  a  demand  for  his  merchandise  hundreds,  even  thou- 
sands, of  miles  away.  The  agriculturist  or  other  pro- 
ducer who  sold  through  his  little  merchant  to  this  little 
market  at  no  price  at  all,  and  with  no  demand,  suddenly 
finds  that  his  products  are  sought  for,  and  at  compara- 
tively better  prices.  It  would  be  a  low  order  of  mind 
which  did  not  see  the  cause  for  this,  and  the  Chinaman 
has  not  a  low  order  of  mind;  commercially,  he  has  a  very 
keen  mind.  He  finds  the  cause  of  this  in  a  steel  railway; 
from  this  it  becomes  clear  to  him  that  to  get  to  that  rail- 
way is  the  best  thing  for  him. 

Therefore  he  sees  for  the  first  time  in  his  life  the  ne- 
cessity for  good  roads.  And  although  in  1901  the  rail- 
road was  only  in  process  of  construction,  and  although 
freight  was  as  yet  hauled  along  the  southern  divisions 
only,  and  then  merely  as  a  matter  of  obliging  mer- 
chants, and  not  as  a  matter  of  business,  little  branches 
of  highway  were  already  springing  up  and  out  from 
this  steel  spinal  column  of  commerce  like  growing  trade- 
nerves.  As  yet,  of  course,  the  improvement  on  these 
roads  amounts  to  little.  You  would  not  notice  it  un- 
less you  were  looking  for  it ;  but  it  is  a  safe  prophecy 
that  within  ten  years  from  the  completion  of  the  Man- 
churian  railway  fairly  passable  roads  will  lead  from  every 
station  for  distances  into  the  interior;  and  from  these 
roads  others  will  gradually  branch  off.  And  so  a  peo- 
ple hitherto  segregated  from  their   fellow  -  men  will  be 

79 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

brought  into  contact  with  the  other  inhabitants  of  the 
earth. 

Good  roads  in  China!  Free  transportation  of  exports 
through  the  interior  of  China!  Five  years  ago  no  seri" 
ous  thinker  upon  the  development  of  commerce  in  the 
Orient  would  have  even  talked  to  you  about  those  sub- 
jects, so  impossible  would  he  have  declared  them;  for 
the  roads  of  China  (and  Manchuria  is  a  part  of  China)  are 
impassable  sloughs  of  mire  in  the  rainy  season  and  almost 
impassable  rivers  of  dust  when  the  weather  is  dry.  Only 
in  winter  is  transportation  in  Manchuria  practicable,  ex- 
cept by  boats.  In  winter  the  solidly  frozen  earth  makes 
a  firm  road-bed,  and  the  snow  gives  possibility  of  speed. 
In  this  respect  Manchurian  roads  are  like  Russian  roads, 
but  in  all  other  seasons — well,  an  attempt  was  made  to 
drive  to  a  Chinese  town  three  miles  from  the  point  where 
the  Russians  were  building  a  railway  grade,  but  it  had 
been  raining  for  two  days,  and  the  cart  sank  to  its  bed 
and  the  ponies  to  their  bellies  before  the  start  was  fairly 
made.  The  road  was  impracticable,  and  that  town  was 
cut  off  from  the  world. 

"The  theory  of  the  Chinese  government  concerning 
roads  has  been  that  if  there  were  no  roads  insurrection 
would  be  less  probable  and  each  community  would  be 
more  firmly  rooted  to  its  own  village,"  explained  a  gentle- 
man of  forty  years'  acquaintance  with  China  and  Man- 
churia. And  the  following  patriotic  reason  was  given  by 
the  Governor  of  one  of  the  Manchurian  provinces: 

"If  we  had  good  roads,  the  Russians  or  any  other  in- 
vader could  march  right  down  into  the  very  heart  of  our 
country.  To  build  a  fine  road  through  Manchuria  or 
any  other  part  of  China  would  be  to  invite  invasion  by 
our  foreign  enemies." 

"So  you  see,"  said  a  European  traveller  in  the  Orient, 
"Chinese  logic  makes  the  building  of  fine  highways  the 
very  substance  of  treason." 


VII 

MANCHURIAN    RAILWAY    RESULTS    AND    METHODS 

I  CAN  tell  you  one  result  of  the  Manchurian  railroad," 
said  the  principal  American  agent  for  locomotives, 
steel  rails,  and  the  like,  located  at  a  certain  treaty  port  of 
China.  "America  has  sold  the  Manchurian  road  several 
millions  of  dollars'  worth  of  engines,  machinery,  rails, 
and  other  railroad  materials.  In  this  respect,  at  least, 
the  Russians  are  still  buying  in  the  best  and  cheapest 
market,  and  the  best  and  cheapest  market  in  the  world 
is  our  own.  It  is  not  so  with  the  Germans,"  he  con- 
tinued. "We  underbid  every  one  for  the  railway  ma- 
terials and  other  steel  products  for  the  German  works 
at  Kiaochou  and  the  German  lines  in  the  province  of 
Shan-Tung,  but  we  did  not  get  the  contract.  The  Ger- 
man official  explained  to  me  that  the  German  manu- 
facturers demanded  that  preference  be  given  to  them, 
and  it  was."  We  shall  see  why  this  was  true  when  we 
come  to  examine  the  German  railway  concession  in 
Shan-Tung. 

"Baldwin  Locomotive  Works,  Philadelphia,  No. , 

— 1900."  This  legend  on  an  American  engine,  running  on 
American  rails,  spiked  down  to  a  Russian  railway  grade 
in  Chinese  Manchuria!  Sordid  or  not,  the  feeling  of 
national  pride  is  strong  within  the  American  breast  when 
this  spectacle  presents  itself.  It  was  seen  many  times  in 
Manchuria  during  the  summer  of  1901.  Now  that  the 
road  is  opened,  you  may  see  it  for  yourself;  for  most  of  the 
equipment  for  the  Manchurian  railway  is  American,  a 
small  percentage  of  it  is  French,  very  little  is  Russian. 
6  81 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Mature  reflection  will  convince  any  man  who  has  been 
through  the  locomotive  works  of  Russia,  and  considered 
the  extent  of  her  railroad  lines,  that  she  cannot,  for  many 
years  to  come,  supply  her  needed  railway  equipment. 
Certainly  this  is  true  of  all  the  Manchurian  and  Trans- 
Baikal  Siberian  lines.  After  a  while,  maybe,  she  can 
supply  her  own  needs.  And  it  is  the  "after  a  while" 
that  Russia  is  always  thinking  about.  If  Russia  would 
think  more  about  the  present  than  the  future,  and  if 
America  thought  more  about  the  future  than  the  present, 
the  future  condition  of  one  and  the  present  condition  of 
the  other  would  be  bettered. 

But  what  of  the  people  of  Manchuria?  Just  this  of 
them,  then.  As  has  been  noted,  they  are  being  brought 
into  relation  with  the  rest  of  the  world.  And  they  are 
being  given  work  of  which  they  never  dreamed.  Wants 
are  being  created  in  their  breasts  which  the  commercial 
activities  of  all  mankind  will  ultimately  be  called  upon 
to  satisfy.  Better  clothing,  better  food,  elbow-touch, 
and  mind-contact  with  their  fellows — so  much  for  the 
people  of  Manchuria  is  this  railway  beginning  to  do. 
Fate,  which  is  weaving  its  great  web  of  civilization 
around  the  globe,  has  picked  up  at  last  this  neglected 
strand  of  people,  and  the  shuttle  is  already  carrying  it 
backward  and  forward  and  making  it  a  part  of  the  fabric 
of  material  human  progress. 

As  we  have  seen,  Russia  in  Manchuria  appeared  to  be 
exercising  care  not  to  oflend  the  people  or  their  prejudices. 
Another  example  of  this  good  sense  was  exhibited  in  her 
policy  of  paying  for  the  land  over  which  her  railroad 
through  Manchuria  is  built ;  for  it  is  said  not  one  foot  of 
the  right  of  way  occupied  by  private  persons  was  taken 
without  compensation.  Not  only  that,  but  the  com- 
pensation was  agreed  to — often  fixed — by  the  owner  of 
the  land.  This  fact  is  of  interest  because  of  the  popular 
belief  in  America  that  Russia  built  her  road  through 
Manchuria  by  the  forcible  seizure  of  the  right  of  way. 

82 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

The  railway  company  or  the  Russo-Chinese  Bank  (these 
are  the  ostensible  builders  of  the  road,  and  we  shall  come 
to  this  in  a  subsequent  chapter)  left  the  securing  of  the 
right  of  way  to  the  officials  of  the  Chinese  government 
themselves.  The  Russians  understand  well  these  officials, 
and  the  officials  understand  well  their  people. 

So  the  Russians  came  to  an  understanding  with  the 
Chinese  officials;  and  even  before  that  the  Russian  gov- 
ernment had  come  to  an  understanding  with  the  Chi- 
nese government  (for  this  road  is  built  under  a  contract 
to  which  the  Chinese  government  is  a  party).  And  the 
Chinese  officials,  thus  brought  into  sympathy  with  the 
Russians,  remembering  the  intense  prejudice  of  the  peo- 
ple against  railways,  mindful  of  their  vivid  superstitions, 
satisfied,  first  of  all,  the  pockets  of  the  land-owners. 
It  is  said  that  not  a  foot  of  private  land  actually  occupied 
has  been  touched  by  the  Russians  for  which  its  full  price 
has  not  been  paid,  and  in  some  instances  more  than  its 
full  price.  For  example,  it  is  stated  that  three  thou- 
sand rubles  were  paid  for  one  tract  of  thirty  acres — 
that  is,  a  hundred  rubles,  or  fifty  dollars  in  gold,  per 
acre.  Of  course,  special  reasons  may  have  influenced 
high  payments.  The  average  price  paid  for  good  land 
and  bad  land  was  twenty  rubles  an  acre,  or  ten  dollars 
in  gold.  Such  was  the  apparently  credible  information, 
which,  however,  could  not,  of  course,  be  verified. 

Sometimes  the  railroad  will  make  strange  little  de- 
flections to  avoid  a  clump  of  trees;  but  it  is  not  the  trees 
which  the  road  is  avoiding.  It  is  the  graves  of  which 
the  little  grove  is  the  monument.  (A  Manchurian  land- 
scape is  often  made  strangely  attractive  by  clumps  of 
trees  scattered  over  it;  and  each  clump  of  trees  marks 
a  burying  -  ground  or  a  village.  It  is  said  to  be  the 
survival  of  an  ancient  and  noble  sentiment,  neglected 
now  in  China,  which  makes  the  Manchurian  wish  to 
repose  beneath  the  shades  of  the  green  foliage.)  Some- 
times, though,  the  expense  of  avoiding  these  burying- 

83 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

grounds  was  too  great,  and  the  railroad  had  to  pay  the 
family  their  own  price  for  the  land  where  their  ancestors 
were  sleeping.  Then  the  remains  were  exhumed  and 
placed  elsewhere. 

Of  course,  there  are  long  stretches  of  the  road  through 
uninhabited  plains  and  mountains  for  which  nothing  at  all 
was  paid.  Parts  of  the  line  running  through  northwest- 
em  Manchuria,  for  example,  traverse  prairies  whose  soil 
is  impregnated  with  alkali.  Nobody  lives  there.  No- 
body lives  in  the  northwestern  or  northeastern  moun- 
tains, either.  Nobody  lives  in  some  of  the  extensive  val- 
leys of  northeastern  Manchuria  through  which  the  road 
runs.  Most  of  the  fertile  agricultural  lands  in  these  tracts 
are,  and  for  decades  (possibly  centuries)  have  been,  un- 
inhabited. It  is  estimated  by  experts  that  not  more  than 
one-fifth  of  the  cultivable  land  of  Manchuria  is  occupied. 

Russians  are  not  so  expert  in  railway  building  as  Amer- 
icans; they  are  not  so  expert  in  anything  as  Americans, 
except  the  art  of  establishing  authority  and  maintaining 
it  without  friction  after  it  is  established.  And  though  the 
Manchurian  railway  does  not  equal  our  great  lines,  as  we 
know  them  at  present,  its  construction,  com.pared  with 
that  of  the  Siberian  road,  or  even  with  any  road  of  Russia, 
excepting  only  two,  is  very  good  indeed. 

Of  the  corruption  and  fraud  in  the  building  of  the  Si- 
berian road,  and  especially  the  Ussuri  branch  from  Kha- 
baroff  to  Vladivostock,  there  can  be  no  question,  and  the 
fact  is  not  denied.  In  comparison,  the  Manchurian  road 
is  superior  in  solidity  of  construction,  directness  of  route, 
and  honesty  of  building.  Both  fills  and  cuts  are  well  done. 
Even  in  1901  short  sections  north  of  Port  Arthur  were 
ballasted  with  rock,  and  the  bed  for  a  new  road  is  sur- 
prisingly good  in  these  places.  The  bridges,  particularly, 
were  admirable.  However,  it  must  be  admitted  that 
there  were  signs  of  waste  of  power  and  material  painfully 
apparent  at  many  places.  It  is  not  said  that  the  Man- 
churian road  is  ideallv  built;  it  is  said,  however,  that  its 

84 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

methods  of  construction  are  a  distinct  advance  over  those 
employed  in  the  building  of  the  Siberian  road. 

And  this  further  and  redeeming  fact  is  noted  also,  that 
corruption  in  railway  construction  is  being  eliminated  in 
Asiatic  Russia  as  well  as  in  Russia  in  Europe,  and,  indeed, 
throughout  the  whole  world.  Honesty  of  method  is  in- 
creasing because  civilization  is  increasing  all  around  the 
globe.  Men  are  growing  more  and  more  upright  from 
principle,  and  from  policy  also.  And  it  is  something  of  a 
defence  of  what  some  harshly  call  "  commercialism  "  that 
fraud,  dishonesty,  and  all  financial  unrighteousness  are 
being  eHminated,  and  gradually  being  made  impossible 
even,  by  the  highly  complex  organization  of  the  com- 
mercial world. 

Out  of  "  the  chaos  and  disorder  of  things"  in  Russia,  as 
a  keen,  young  Russian  engineer  brilliantly  phrased  it,  busi- 
ness method,  far  more  than  moral  improvement,  is  bring- 
ing regularity,  accuracy,  and  therefore  honesty.  For 
example,  Witte,  Russia's  finance  minister  and  President 
of  the  Committee  of  Ministers,  the  master  mind  of  the 
empire,  has,  it  is  said,  applied  to  all  expenditures  a  sys- 
tem of  audit  through  which  the  smallest  item  of  outlay 
must  pass.  The  chief  defect  of  this  system  is  the  cumber- 
some minuteness  of  its  examination.  Witte  and  other 
men  of  his  quality  of  mind  and  will  are  the  hope  and  sal- 
vation of  commercial  and  constructive  Russia. 

Here  again  is  noted  that  circumstance  (perfectly  nat- 
ural, but  which  at  first  thought  seems  unnatural) — the 
beginning  of  reforms  which  extend  to  the  home  country 
by  new  work  away  from  home. 

Take,  for  example,  a  most  obvious,  simple,  and  striking 
instance.  A  Russian  railway-train  not  only  moves  slowly, 
but  it  stops  at  all  stations,  and  when  it  stops  it  stops  for  a 
long  time.  Officials  go  into  the  station  with  papers  and 
telegrams  and  all  manner  of  bureaucratic  over-systemiza- 
tion.  You  would  think  that  enough  paper  had  been  ex- 
changed to  start  half  a  dozen  trains.     Suddenly  an  official 

85 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

with  a  whistle  blows  a  loud  shriek — a  very  needle-thrust  of 
sound;  but  the  train  does  not  start  and  nothing  is  done, 
and  nobody  pays  any  attention  to  it.  Then  a  loud-sound- 
ing bell  is  rung;  still  nothing  is  done,  and  no  one  pays  any 
attention  to  it.  In  a  few  minutes  (perhaps  five)  the  bell 
is  again  rung,  and  again  nothing  is  done,  and  no  one  pays 
any  attention  to  it.  And  a  third  time  the  bell  is  rung  four 
or  five  taps,  and  the  people  begin  to  move  languidly  to 
the  cars;  and  then  there  is  blowing  of  whistles.  Finally, 
the  whistle  of  the  engine  itself  sends  up  its  hoarse  shout, 
and  the  passengers  embark,  and  when  all  are  onboard  the 
train  sleepily  moves  ofif.  On  but  three  lines  in  Russia  is 
there  any  more  expedition  than  this. 

It  seems  foolish,  incongruous,  that  the  reform  of  this  non- 
modern  leisurelyness  of  Russian  transportation  methods 
should  begin  in  that  Chinese  Botany  Bay — that  fag-end 
of  the  world,  called  Manchuria.  Yet  this  is  precisely  what 
is  going  on.  In  the  two  divisions  north  of  Port  Arthur 
Mr.  Girshmann  had  regular  passenger  service  inaugurated 
even  in  1901.  It  was,  of  course,  merely  local  and  unim- 
portant, and  confined  to  carrying  Chinese  local  merchants 
and  Russian  officers;  and  yet  the  train  started  off  like  an 
American  train,  with  a  single,  sharp,  swift  signal.  In  two 
cases  people  who  had  been  in  Russia  came  near  getting 
left.  "I  am  doing  away  with  that  old  practice,"  said 
Mr.  Girshmann,  "or,  rather,  I  have  never  introduced  it. 
We  have  new  ground  to  work  on  here,  you  see,  and  it  is 
easier  to  establish  modern  methods  than  it  is  where  cus- 
tom has  already  fixed  and  forfeited  ancient  abuses."  And 
so  it  is  that  the  reform  of  the  transportation  methods  of 
the  world's  greatest  empire  has  begun  at  its  farthest  ex- 
tremity and  upon  its  newest  work. 

There  are  other  reforms  which  will  be  wrought  by  Rus- 
sia's appearance  on  the  Pacific;  for  this  brings  her  face  to 
face  with  the  world's  keen  competition  and  its  invigo- 
rating association,  more  even  than  does  her  railway  con- 
nection with  Europe.     There  is  an  indifference  to  prompt- 

86 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

ness,  a  lack  of  enterprise  and  expedition,  an  acceptance 
of  situations  without  speedy  efforts  to  improve  them, 
about  Russian  railway  administration  (except  on  two 
or  three  crack  lines  and  trains),  which  are  not  in  keep- 
ing with  the  spirit  and  methods  of  the  present  day. 
And  when  Russia  comes  in  contact  with  American 
enterprise  in  the  Orient  (and  American  enterprise  in 
the  Orient  will  predominate  in  a  very  few  years) ,  and  Ger- 
man enterprise  in  the  Orient  (and  nowhere  in  the  world  is 
German  enterprise  so  vivid  and  dynamic  as  in  the  Orient), 
Russia  herself  will  catch  the  spirit  of  modern  things  and 
fall  in  step  with  modern  methods  in  her  entire  commercial 
economy,  but  first  of  all  in  her  railway  administration. 
And  she  needs  this  badly. 

But  do  not  imagine  that  all  is  industry  and  punctual 
alertness  in  the  Russian's  work  in  Manchuria.  Even  there 
sloth  and  carelessness  are  in  evidence.  For  example,  a 
young  engineer  in  charge  of  a  bridge  construction  was  found 
reading  a  French  novel  in  a  rather  sumptuous  private 
car  on  a  siding  in  central  Manchuria.  The  floods  had 
impaired  the  temporary  bridges  some  twenty  miles  ahead. 
Locomotives  were  in  the  yards,  some  of  them  with  steam 
up.  We  had  arrived  on  a  little  push-car,  made  by  a  plat- 
form, six  feet  by  eight,  lifted  upon  two  sets  of  wheels 
and  pushed  by  Chinese  laborers.  The  "master  of  the 
distance"  was  asked  to  take  the  party  to  the  break  in 
the  road  with  his  locomotive.  He  refused,  saying  it  was 
under  the  command  of  the  young  engineer.  The  young 
engineer  refused  because — "Well,  because,  what's  the 
use?"  said  he;  "you  can't  cross  the  river.  You  will  have 
to  go  back  and  wait  till  the  floods  go  down,  and  so  there 
is  no  use  disturbing  myself  for  two  or  three  hours  to 
get  you  down  the  river,  twenty  miles  away."  Yet  the 
river  was  reached  and  crossed,  though  with  much  hard- 
ship and  some  peril. 

At  another  station  the  following  incident  occurred. 
Connection  was  refused  because  the  assistant  "  master  of 

87 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  distance  "  had  not  ordered  it,  and  the  assistant  "  mas- 
ter of  the  distance  "  had  not  ordered  it  because  he  was  not 
yet  out  of  bed  (it  was  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning).  When 
he  was  awakened  he  dechned  because  "the  master  of  the 
distance"  had  not  ordered  it;  and  he  had  not  ordered  it 
because  he  was  still  in  bed.  When  the  "master  of  the 
distance"  was  aroused  he  declined  because  no  special 
orders  had  been  received  subsequent  to  general  orders, 
telegraphed  three  days  before. 

"  Yes,  it  is  quite  true  that  the  general  orders  to  forward 
you  when  you  wish  are  comprehensive  and  explicit,  but 
that  was  three  days  ago.  I  must  now  have  special  orders 
to  put  these  general  orders  into  effect." 

But  when  the  methods  of  Mr.  Girshmann  are  extended 
over  the  whole  Manchurian  system ;  when  the  Manchurian 
road  makes  its  connections  with  the  great  American  freight 
liners ;  when  the  current  of  commerce  is  switched  on  from 
all  the  world  at  Port  Arthur  and  Dalni,  these  mediaeval 
characteristics  of  Russian  railway  administration  will  dis- 
appear, because  the  conditions  that  permit  them  will  have 
been  destroyed. 

Already  the  connection  is  beginning.  Port  Arthur  is 
unsightly  with  its  yellow  hills  and  noxious  with  its  streets 
of  filth,  and  yet  picturesque,  too,  in  its  cosmopolitan 
interminglings.  It  is  a  military  and  a  naval  port  also. 
But  while  Russia  is  actually  creating  Dalni  (it  was  said 
in  1901  that  she  had  25,000  laborers  at  work  on  buildings, 
breakwaters,  piers,  etc.,  and  in  the  general  construction 
of  this  port  on  TaHenhwan  Bay),  Port  Arthur  serves  as 
the  commercial  terminus  of  the  railroad  until  Dalni  is 
ready.  Its  harbor  therefore  was,  as  early  as  1901, 
crowded  with  the  ships  of  all  nations.  From  Port  Arthur 
you  may  go  direct  to  Japan,  Pekin,  Cheefoo,  Shanghai, 
Hong-Kong;  sometimes  direct  even  to  Manila,  and  always 
direct  to  Singapore  and  Odessa.  There  are  the  crowding 
and  bustle  and  jostle  of  commercial  activity.  Already 
there   are   three   American   commercial   houses   in   Port 

88 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Arthur,  conducted  with  vigor  and  push.  The  principal 
commercial  establishments  are  German,  as  everybody 
who  has  been  around  the  world  would  expect. 

"  If  the  Russians  will  only  continue  to  let  imports  come 
in  free,  I  ask  nothing  better,"  said  a  keen  American 
merchant,  who  is  making  his  mark  in  Port  Arthur.  "It 
is  the  best  thing  for  them,  too,"  continued  he,  "for  even 
if  we  Americans  and  Germans  do  the  most  business  tem- 
porarily these  Russians  after  a  while  will  get  on  to  our 
commercial  methods,  which  would  be  worth  more  to  them 
than  all  the  temporary  rubles  and  copecks  they  could  pos- 
sibly make  by  monopolizing  trade.  Russia  needs  modern 
business  system  more  than  she  needs  anything  else,  and  she 
will  catch  it  from  us  if  she  rubs  up  against  us  long  enough." 

This  young  American  was  quite  right,  for  within  an 
hour  a  Russian  railway  official  made  this  remark:  "What 
we  need  is  more  of  America's  business  method  and  system, 
more  of  Germany's  cautious  aggressiveness  and  laborious 
plan .  We  heartily  dislike  many  things  that  seem  character- 
istically American ;  they  seem  to  us  irrational.  But  one 
thing  all  men  must  admit,  America  is  the  business  expert 
of  the  world,  with  Germany  a  close  second,  and,  indeed, 
with  some  points  of  superiority  over  even  America." 

At  the  wharf  in  Port  Arthur  was  a  great  ship  of  twelve 
thousand  tons  burden.  It  was  flying  the  Russian  flag:  It  is 
a  member  of  that  ambitious  maritime  undertaking,  the 
"Russian  Volunteer  Fleet."  Not  many  Atlantic  liners 
have  accommodations  for  first  -  class  cabin  passengers 
superior  to  this  Russian  ship  running  from  Odessa  to 
Port  Arthur.  She  is  fitted  up  to  carry  emigrants,  too. 
This  particular  vessel  had  just  landed  fifteen  hundred 
Russian  emigrants,  and  her  freight-carrying  capacity  is 
also  fair.  These  astonishing  ships — astonishing  when 
you  consider  that  Russia  is  a  land  nation,  when  you 
reflect  upon  the  port  they  leave  and  the  port  they  make — 
constitute  one  of  the  world's  fast  lines.  There  is  not  a 
modern  device  which  thev  do  not  have.     No  twentieth- 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

century  comfort,  luxury,  or  appliance  of  efficiency  is 
neglected.  They  are  fitted  to  be  auxiliary  cruisers  in 
time  of  war — transports,  commerce-destroyers,  and  what 
not.  But,  over  all,  their  chief  use  is  in  commerce.  They 
constitute  Russia's  water  connection  with  the  Manchurian- 
Siberian  railway.  They  complete  Russia's  trade  circuit 
around  the  world. 

This  "Russian  Volunteer  Fleet"  deserves  particular 
attention.  It  is  not  only  Russia's  first  adventure  in  a 
large  way  in  the  fields  of  maritime  commerce;  it  is  also  a 
great  practical  training-school  for  Russian  seamen.  In- 
deed, just  that  is  its  first  and  underlying  purpose.  Its 
officers  are  accomplished  navigators,  carefully  educated. 
The  crews  of  its  vessels  are  young  Russians  taken  from 
the  shores  of  Russia's  southern  inland  seas.  The  fleet 
draws  a  continuous  stream  of  young  men,  carefully  select- 
ed, educates  them  by  means  of  practical  service,  and 
turns  the  best  of  them  over  to  the  already  considerable 
and  ever-growing  Russian  navy. 

In  this  way  Russia  is  preparing  practical  seamen  for 
her  navy  and  merchant  marine,  with  which,  in  the  course 
of  time,  she  expects  to  become  one  of  the  first  sea  powers 
of  the  world,  as  she  is  already  one  of  the  very  first  land 
powers  on  the  globe. 

Russia's  "Volunteer  Fleet"  is  characteristic  of  the 
Slav  race  in  three  particulars  —  patient  tenacity  of  pur- 
pose, aspiration  towards  the  world's  waters,  and  large- 
ness of  plan  and  execution.  With  her  "Volunteer  Fleet" 
on  the  sea  the  Russian  nation  is  doing,  as  a  government 
and  a  people,  in  the  twentieth  century  what  Peter  the 
Great  did  at  Saardam,  Holland,  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  This  first  of  Russian  rulers  per- 
sonified the  silent  instinct  of  the  Russian  people  in  his 
determination  to  place  the  flag  of  Russia  on  Russian 
vessels  and  launch  them  on  the  ocean  highways  of  the 
world.  Nobody  in  Russia  knew  how  to  build  a  ship, 
much  less  to  navigate  one.     The  Czar,  who  felt  himself 

90 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

inspired  not  only  to  give  the  orders  for  progress,  but 
actually  to  carry  out  his  conception  with  his  own  hand, 
went  to  the  yards  of  the  best  ship-builders  in  Holland,  at 
that  time  the  best  naval  constructors  of  Europe.  He 
worked  as  a  journeyman  in  the  actual  building  of  sea- 
going craft. 

Everybody  is  famiHar  with  this  charming  piece  of  biog- 
raphy, full  of  human  interest  and  appealing  in  a  peculiar 
way  to  all  men  of  all  races  who  feel  in  their  blood  the 
aptitude  for  the  practical.  Everybody  knows,  too,  the 
story  of  the  beginning  of  the  Russian  navy  by  this  re- 
markable ruler.  From  the  days  of  Peter  until  the 
present,  Russian  statesmen  and  the  Russian  people  have 
steadily  adhered  not  only  to  their  great  monarch's  Far 
Eastern  designs,  but  they  have  even  more  earnestly 
persisted  in  trying  to  realize  his  dream  of  Russia  on  the 
ocean.  And  exactly  as  the  Russian  Autocrat  went  to 
Saardam  to  work  as  a  common  laborer  in  the  ship-yards 
of  Holland  two  centuries  ago,  so  the  Russian  people 
to-day  are  learning  seamanship  by  real  practice  in  the 
navigation  of  the  deep,  on  voyages  as  hazardous  as  can 
now  be  made;  for  be  it  remembered  that  from  port  to 
port  the  regular  journeys  of  the  ships  of  the  "  Russian 
Volunteer  Fleet  "  are  the  longest  made  by  any  line  of  the 
present  day. 

They  start  from  Odessa,  in  southwestern  Russia,  and, 
sailing  across  the  Black  Sea,  pass  through  the  Dar- 
danelles, the  Sea  of  Marmora,  and  the  Bosporus,  traverse 
the  Mediterranean,  and,  touching  at  but  one  Asiatic 
port,  Singapore,  make  land  no  more,  except  for  coal,  until 
they  tie  up  at  the  docks  in  Port  Arthur,  Dalni,  or  Vladi- 
vostock,  hundreds  of  miles  north  of  Japan.  Two  of 
these  ships  also  start  from  St.  Petersburg.  It  will  be 
interesting  and  instructive  to  trace  with  your  pencil  on 
the  world's  map  the  course  sailed  by  these  modern 
Russian  commercial  leviathans  of  the  deep.  When  you 
have  traced  such  a  line,  and  then  remember  the  size  of  the 

91 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

ships,  equal  in  tonnage  at  the  time  they  were  built  to 
any  ship  afloat,  you  vv^ill  begin  to  understand  the  com- 
prehensiveness with  which  Russia  lays  out  her  plans. 
You  will  begin  to  discern  also  those  contradictory  ele- 
ments in  Russian  policy — the  element  of  national  pro- 
vincialism woven  into  world  purpose. 

For  practical  purposes,  this  remarkable  fleet  makes  but 
two  ports — Russian  Odessa  or  St.  Petersburg  in  Europe, 
the  port  of  departure,  and  Russian  Dalni,  Port  Arthur,  or 
Vladivostock  in  northern  Asia,  the  port  of  destination. 
Thus,  practically  without  commerce  except  at  Russian 
ports,  Russia  sails  almost  around  the  world  to  complete 
her  circuit  of  empire.* 

Largeness  of  design,  comprehensiveness  of  purpose. 
The  Siberian  -  Manchurian  railway  from  the  heart  of 
Russia  practically  to  the  capital  of  China  on  the  one 
hand;  on  the  other  hand  the  "Russian  Volunteer  Fleet," 
flying  the  colors  of  the  Czar,  from  Russia's  greatest  com- 
mercial centre  in  Europe  to  the  terminus  of  Russia's 
railroad  on  the  waters  of  the  Far  East.  So  it  is  that  the 
Russian  sailor  and  Russian  railway-man  clasp  hands  in 
the  Orient.  Not  that  in  this  process  they  do  not  also 
touch  shoulders  with  the  rest  of  the  world.  Whether 
they  will  or  no,  these  very  agencies  compel  them  to  meet 
in  commercial  fraternity  the  keen  minds  and  daring 
hearts  of  men  of  every  other  nationality.  And  so  it  is 
that  these  two  agencies  of  commerce  and  communication 
are  not  only  cementing  Russian  solidarity  by  land  and 
sea,  but  are  also  bringing  Russia  into  commercial  brother- 
hood with  the  rest  of  mankind.  And,  finally,  so  it  is  that 
the  revolution  of  Russian  commercial  methods  is  be- 
ginning where  the  hands  of  her  commercial  activities  are 
joined  at  the  farthest  outposts  of  her  dominions. 

*  Russia  is  now  beginning  local  seafaring  service  in  the  Orient. 
For  example,  the  East  China  Railway  Company  now  have  a  reg- 
ular line  of  steamers  between  Dalni  and  Nagasaki,  just  as  Ger- 
many has  between  Kiaochou  and  Shanghai. 

92 


VIII 

A    DIPLOMATIC    GAME    FOR    AN    EMPIRE 

I  THOUGHT  that  Japan  took  the  lower  part  of  Man- 
churia, including  Port  Arthur,  as  her  price  for  ending 
her  war  with  China,"  remarked  a  travelled  American  on 
board  a  great  German  liner  bound  for  Hong  -  Kong. 
(Among  the  very  finest  ship-lines  of  the  Orient  are  those 
of  Germany.)  "How,  then,  can  Russia  be  occupying 
that  same  land?"  he  asked. 

It  is  a  pertinent  question,  and  its  answer  relates  to  the 
most  fascinating  part  of  Russia's  Manchurian  advance  on 
Asia.  It  is  a  story  that  can  never  be  completely  told, 
perhaps,  by  any  one  but  Witte  himself  or  the  Russian 
Foreign  Office.  In  a  nebulous  way,  the  external  facts, 
however,  are  familiar  to  the  diplomatic  world,  and  careful 
inqmry  and  the  sifting  process  of  judicial  impartiality 
give  us  a  fair  idea  of  those  that  are  not  in  evidence. 
Entire  accuracy  is  not  claimed  and  is  not  possible;  but 
general  outlines  may  be  drawn. 

Attempts  of  any  one  to  ascertain  the  foreign  operations 
of  the  financial  and  diplomatic  ministries  of  Russia  are  like 
the  movements  of  a  catfish  in  a  mudd}^  pond — it  can  never 
see  clearly  the  details  of  its  movements,  and  must  be 
satisfied  with  locating  the  general  boundaries  of  its  home. 
So,  in  the  financial  and  diplomatic  plans  of  Russia,  the 
world  is  kept  admirably  in  the  dark  till  results  first  an- 
nounce the  purpose  of  which  those  results  are  the  accom- 
plishment; and  even  then  the  real  history  leading  up  to 
them  can  be  discovered  only  in  large  general  demarca- 
tions.    The  same  is  true,  though  in  less  degree,  of  the 

93 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

diplomacy  of  the  French  RepubHc  and  of  Germany,  too; 
whereas  the  plans  of  the  Amercan  Republic  (and  almost 
equally  of  England)  must  be  publicly  debated  before  they 
are  adopted.  With  this  admission  of  our  limitations, 
therefore,  let  us  survey  the  head-lines  of  recent  diplomatic 
history  in  the  Far  East. 

First  of  all,  everybody  will  recall  how  the  triumph  of 
China  was  universally  predicted  when  the  war  between 
that  country  and  Japan  broke  out.  China  was  big,  ev- 
erybody said;  her  reserve  strength  was  so  enormous,  her 
resources  so  inexhaustible,  and  so  forth.  Japan  might  win 
at  first.  It  would  take  much  time  to  arouse  the  giant  of 
the  Asiatic  main-land.  Yes,  but  once  China  was  aroused, 
impertinent  little  Japan  would  be  crushed.  This  was  the 
belief  of  even  the  English  Foreign  Office.  It  seems  in- 
credible that  the  British  ministry  should  have  had  no 
better  information  and  reached  no  wiser  conclusion  than 
that  of  the  rumor-fed  crowd  on  the  streets;  but  such  ap- 
pears, even  to  the  warmest  friends  of  England,  to  have 
been  the  fact.  At  the  beginning  of  the  war,  therefore, 
England  favored  China,  and,  it  is  said,  embarrassed  Ja- 
pan's naval  operations  on  one  or  two  signal  occasions. 
Not  till  the  world  knew  that  China's  defeat  was  certain  and 
irretrievable  did  British  statesmen  appear  to  realize  the 
situation;  and  then  their  change  of  front  was  ineffective. 

On  the  contrary,  in  this  great  Asiatic  crisis  (world  crisis 
it  might  properly  be  called)  the  intelligent,  patient  (her 
enemies  say  unscrupulous)  work  of  Russia's  bureaus  of 
information  throughout  the  Orient  bore  golden  fruit. 
Russia  knew  that  Japan  would  win.  She  reasoned  that 
Japan  would  probably  demand  the  cession  of  some  portion 
of  Chinese  territory,  most  likely  the  lower  part  of  Man- 
churia, which  commands  Korea;  and  on  Manchuria  Rus- 
sia had  long  looked  with  desiring  eyes.  With  that 
celerity  and  address  which  make  Russia's  foreign  states- 
manship as  much  superior  to  that  of  other  nations  as 
her  internal   and   economic   statesmanship   previous  to 

94 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Witte's  administration  had  been  inferior,  the  government 
of  the  Czar  prepared  for  the  restdt. 

In  this  problem  the  Slav  statesman  had  five  factors  to 
consider:  China  and  Japan,  of  course,  and  England,  Ger- 
many, and  France.  First,  then,  of  France.  Between  the 
French  Republic  and  the  Russian  Autocracy  exist  the 
most  perfect  and  smoothly  working  governmental  and 
diplomatic  understanding  of  modern  times.  It  is  a  sin- 
gular illustration  of  the  influence  of  hatred  and  interest  in 
making  a  combination  between  two  peoples  unlike  in  tem- 
perament, ideas,  and  methods.  Their  alliance  was  born 
of  their  common  fear  and  hatred  of  England  and  Ger- 
many— of  the  numerous  conflicts  of  German  and  English 
interests  with  Russian  and  French  interests.  And  so, 
in  their  foreign  policy,  and  particularly  in  their  Oriental 
diplomacy,  they  might  almost  be  said  to  work  as  one 
government.  So  far  as  the  rest  of  the  world  is  concerned, 
French  diplomatic  agents  in  Asia  operate  in  undersanding 
with  Russia;  and  the  reverse  is  also  true.  Russia,  then, 
could  count  on  the  first  trump  in  this  game  of  empire. 

Next,  of  Japan.  Japan  was,  of  course,  the  party  whose 
purposes  it  was  Russia's  object  to  defeat ;  and  her  position, 
therefore,  was  clear,  and  her  play  in  the  game  was  well 
understood.  She  was  a  known  and  certain  quantity.  She 
would  resist  to  the  extent  of  her  strength  when  the  pur- 
poses of  Russia  were  disclosed;  but  her  statesmen  could 
be  depended  upon  to  restrain  the  national  passions  and  to 
prevent  Japan  from  resisting  beyond  her  power;  and,  at 
the  close  of  the  exhausting  conflict,  entering  upon  an- 
other war  with  a  fresh  power,  her  defeat  would  be  certain. 
Russia  knew,  therefore,  just  how  far  she  could  go  Vv^ith 
Japan.  And,  in  connection  with  Japan,  she  considered 
England  as  a  quantity  whose  actions  could  be  foretold 
with  minute  certainty,  and  the  limitations  of  whose  Far 
Eastern  movements  were  as  clearly  defined  as  if  they  had 
been  traced  on  a  map.  It  was  taken  for  granted  that 
England  would  do  nothing  but  protest, 

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THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

"  Oho,"  laughed  a  Russian  official,  when  speaking  about 
this  very  matter,  "we  knew  very  well  that  England  would 
solemnly  protest,  but  we  also  knew  as  well  that  she  would 
also  solemnly  do  nothing."  (So  far  as  that  is  concerned, 
no  nation  is  anxious  to  go  to  war  with  any  other  first-class 
power.)  "That  is  the  reason  why,  from  the  day  of  her 
last  statesman,  Disraeli,  until  now,  we  have  not  counted, 
and  do  not  count,  on  real  opposition  from  England." 

"  If  England  had  landed  even  a  company  of  marines  at 
Port  Arthur  when  we  took  possession,"  said  a  Russian 
military  authority,  "we  would  have  evacuated  even  after 
we  took  possession ;  for  that  would  have  shown  that  Eng- 
land meant  to  fight ;  and,  of  course,  we  are  not  going  to 
fight  a  great  power  when  we  can  get  our  ends  just  as  well 
by  waiting  a  few  years."  ^  And  this  is  the  picturesque 
way  it  was  put  by  an  Englishman,  disgusted  with  his  gov- 
ernment's Chinese  policy:  "In  counting  upon  the  assist- 
ance of  Great  Britain,  Japan  believed  she  held  a  trump, 
when  in  reality  it  was  but  a  trick  card,  whose  apparent 
quality  would  disappear  when  it  fell  upon  the  table  under 
the  fierce  illumination  of  impending  conflict,  like  those 
manuscripts  whose  real  writing  is  revealed  only  under 
a  certain  quality  of  light."  And  so  Russia  did  not  count 
England  as  a  factor  in  the  game. 

But  she  did  count  Germany.  Germany  understood  her- 
self. Germany  understood  the  Orient.  Germany  was 
the  only  European  power,  except  Russia,  that  had  a 
clearly  defined  Asiatic  policy.  Germany  was  pursuing 
that  policy  with  material  and  physical  methods  and 
instruments.  Drang  nach  Osten!  Drang  nach  Osten! 
Steamship  lines;  increased  fleets;  pushing,  growing,  and 
gigantic  commercial  houses  in  the  Orient;  vast  German 
investments  in  Chinese  enterprises;  German  merchants, 

*  On  May  4,  1898,  in  a  speech  to  the  Primrose  League,  Lord 
Salisbury  actually  said:  "  I  think  Russia  has  made  a  great  mistake 
in  taking  Port  Arthur.  I  do  not  think  it  is  any  use  to  her  what- 
ever. ' ' 

96 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

German  clerks,  German  traders;  German  the  keenest 
commercial  minds,  and  German  the  steadiest  energy, 
even  in  Siberia  itself;  German  the  best  consular  service 
in  the  Orient  and  German  the  second  best  diplomatic 
service  in  the  Far  East;  and,  in  Europe  itself,  the  best 
army  and  the  most  highly  organized  system  of  trans- 
portation ;  the  best  -  prepared  net  -  work  of  mobilization 
which  the  world  has  yet  developed;  a  vital  people,  the 
most  assertive  national  spirit  and  the  most  vivid  racial 
esprit  de  corps  in  Europe;  German  one  of  the  ablest  and 
most  forcible  rulers  in  the  world ;  German  the  most  highly 
trained  corps  of  public  men  on  the  Continent !  Germany 
must  be  reckoned  with  then. 

Very  well.  Russia  would  reckon  with  Germany,  and, 
when  the  time  was  ripe  for  it,  Russia  did  reckon  with 
Germany.  Germany  was  brought  to  see  that  for  Japan 
to  seal  her  victory  with  a  part  of  China's  territory 
would  be  the  beginning  of  Japanese  supremacy  through- 
out the  whole  Celestial  Empire.  Japan  would  follow  up 
that  victory  with  increasing  influence  in  the  affairs  of 
China.  Japan  would  dominate  the  Chinese  court.  Japan 
would  reorganize  China.  Japan  was  herself  Asiatic,  and 
the  natural  agent  of  Chinese  reorganization.  Japan's 
superb  statesman,  Ito,  was  still  in  the  meridian  of  his 
wonderful  constructive  vigor.  And  with  Japan  securely 
intrenched  as  the  controlling  power  of  China's  four 
hundred  million  inhabitants,  the  commerce  of  the  Far 
East  would  be  forever  dominated  by  the  Island  Empire. 
The  Japanese  problem  of  finding  soil  upon  which  they 
might  live  and  resources  which  might  be  developed  under 
their  direction  would  be  solved.  All  of  this  was  pointed 
out  to  Germany,  and  all  of  this  was  believed  to  be  true; 
and  it  was  just  as  true  that  these  facts  spelled  the 
commercial  disadvantage  of  the  German  people  in  the 
Orient.  And,  therefore,  Germany  was  brought  to  see 
that  her  interests  and  Russia's  were  identical.  Thus 
reasoned  Russia  with  Germany,  and  thus  German 
r  97 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

commercial   logic    followed   Russian   diplomatic   reason- 
ing. 

In  all  justice,  it  must  be  stated  that  Germany  herself 
is  said  by  many  to  have  been  the  originator  of  this  alliance. 

The  last  card  was  the  Chinese  government  itself.  That 
government  would  be  defeated.  Russia  knew  that,  and 
was  the  only  power  that  did  know  it,  so  superior  is  her 
information  concerning  all  Oriental  conditions. 

All  that  Russia  had  to  do,  therefore,  was  to  await  the 
inevitable  defeat  of  China,  the  sure  and  profound  humili- 
ation of  the  Chinese  government,  the  consequent  and  real 
danger  of  the  overthrow  of  the  present  Manchu  dynasty 
at  the  hands  of  the  outraged  Chinese  people.  All  that 
Russia,  had  to  do  was  to  await  the  coming  of  all  the  cir- 
cumstances which  would  make  the  government  at  Pekin 
crawl  on  its  face  to  any  power  that  would  save  its  life. 
That  power  Russia  prepared  herself  to  be. 

The  end  came.  China  was  defeated.  The  hour  was 
striking  for  the  formation  of  the  triple  alliance  of  Germany, 
Russia,  and  France.  Li  Hung  Chang,  representing  China, 
and  that  extraordinary  intellect,  Marquis  Ito,  representing 
Japan,  met  at  Shimonoseki,  and  concluded  the  famous 
treaty  of  peace  which  bears  that  name.  By  this  treaty 
Port  Arthur,  TaHenhwan,  and  the  entire  Liao-Toung 
peninsula  were  ceded  to  Japan.  It  was  not  only  a  war 
indemnity  to  Japan,  but  it  secured  the  very  points  of 
the  Korean  controversy  which  were  the  origin  of  the  war 
itself. 

But  now,  when  Japan  was  in  the  full  flower  of  her 
well-earned  success,  when  the  world  applauded  the  diplo- 
matic ability  which  had  concluded  one  of  the  most  ably 
conducted  conflicts  in  history  (little,  though,  that  war 
was) ;  now,  when  Japan  stepped  forth  from  the  smoke  of 
battle,  amid  the  applause  of  nations,  to  her  place  among 
the  powers  of  the  world  —  a  place  earned  by  her  civil 
and  industrial  revolutions  at  home  and  confirmed  by 
glorious  conduct  in  war  by  sea  and  by  land;   now,  when 

98 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

China  was  prostrate,  humiliated,  disgraced — at  this  su- 
preme and  psychic  hour  Russia  made  her  carefully  pre- 
pared play,  which  in  an  instant  deprived  Japan  of  the 
material  fruits  of  her  victory  and  the  glory  of  her  achieve- 
ment, apparently  rescued  the  Manchu  dynasty  from  cer- 
tain ruin,  and  bound  it  by  the  consideration  of  gratitude 
and  every  form  of  obligation  to  Russia. 

A  joint  note  of  the  Russian,  the  French,  and  the  German 
governments  was  addressed  to  Japan,  telling  her,  in  the 
politest  of  terms,  and  with  the  cleverest  of  arguments,  why 
the  peace  of  the  Orient  would  be  permanently  endangered 
by  her  retaining  possession  of  the  Chinese  territory  ceded 
to  her,  and  expressing  the  hope  of  these  "friendly"  gov- 
ernments that  the  wise,  the  peace-loving,  and  the  humane 
Mikado  would  save  the  situation  by  surrendering  what 
his  generals'  skill  and  his  soldiers'  blood  had  won. 

At  the  same  time  there  were  gathering  ships  of  war 
between  Japan  and  her  prey.  French  ships  came  from 
the  south,  Russian  ships  came  from  the  north,  German 
ships  hovered  near.  The  Japanese  navy  was  overmatched. 
The  attitude  of  the  Russians  was  that  of  immediate  and 
determined  action.  Steam  was  kept  up,  decks  cleared 
for  battle,  and  every  dramatic  effect  of  war  was  intro- 
duced and  employed  with  the  skill  of  accompHshed  per- 
formers. It  was,  therefore,  a  lurid  light  by  which  the 
Japanese  statesman  Ito  read  the  note  of  Russia,  Ger- 
many, and  France.  He  was  out  of  money;  he  had  just 
finished  an  exhausting  conflict;  his  navy  was  outnum- 
bered if  not  outclassed.  It  is  said  that  the  Japanese 
government  in  this  gloomy  hour  of  agony  looked  to 
England,  her  natural  ally;  but  England's  face  was  averted 
in  indecision. 

The  Japanese  nation  clamored  for  war;  but  Japanese 
statesmen  knew  that  war  at  this  moment,  without  power- 
ful aid,  meant  defeat,  and  defeat  ruin.  Therefore,  the 
little  empire  broke  her  sword,  submitted  to  her  fate,  and, 
with  her  hand  held  in  the  mailed  fingers  of  the  alliance 

99 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

which  Russia  had  constructed,  wrote  the  historic  with- 
drawal of  her  claim  to  and  authority  over  the  territory 
China  had  ceded  to  her. 

It  was  but  two  days  after  the  ratification  of  the  treaty 
by  which  Japan  became  the  owner  of  the  southern  shores 
of  Manchuria  that  she  was  forced  to  give  them  up,  with 
such  swift  effect  did  the  triple  alliance  strike.  Ap- 
parently, in  willing  response  to  the  note  of  the  three 
powers,  but  in  reahty  under  duress  of  the  alternative  of 
war,  the  Japanese  government  issued  to  the  world  her 
withdrawal  from  every  foot  of  land  she  had  wrested 
from  China.  This  reveals  so  fully  the  method  of  diplo- 
matic operations  of  this  kind  that  the  most  of  the  Mika- 
do's proclamation  is  here  reproduced: 

"We  recently,  at  the  request  of  the  Emperor  of  China,  appoint- 
ed plenipotentiaries  for  the  purpose  of  conferring  with  the  am- 
bassadors sent  by  China,  and  of  concluding  with  them  a  treaty  of 
peace  between  the  two  empires.  Since  then  the  governments  of 
the  two  empires  of  Russia  and  Germany,  and  of  the  French  Re- 
public, considering  that  the  permanent  possession  of  the  ceded 
districts  of  the  Feng-t'ien  peninsula  by  the  Empire  of  Japan 
would  be  detrimental  to  the  lasting  peace  of  the  Orient,  have 
called,  in  a  simultaneous  recommendation  to  our  government,  to 
refrain  from  holding  these  districts  permanently. 

"Earnestly  desirous,  as  we  always  are,  for  the  maintenance  of 
peace,  nevertheless  we  were  forced  to  commence  hostilities  against 
China  for  no  other  reason  than  our  sincere  desire  to  secure  for  the 
Orient  an  enduring  peace.  The  governments  of  the  three  pow- 
ers are,  in  offering  their  friendly  recommendations,  similarly  actu- 
ated by  the  same  desire,  and  we,  out  of  our  regard  for  peace,  do 
not  hesitate  to  accept  their  advice.  Moreover,  it  is  not  our  wish 
to  cause  suffering  to  our  people  or  to  impede  the  progress  of  the 
national  destiny  by  embroiling  the  empire  in  new  complications, 
and  thereby  imperilling  the  situation  and  retarding  the  restoration 
of  peace. 

"China  has  already  shown,  by  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty  of 
peace,  the  sincerity  of  her  repentance  for  her  breach  of  faith  with 
us,  and  has  made  manifest  to  the  world  our  reasons  and  the  ob- 
ject we  had  in  waging  war  with  that  empire. 

"Under  these  circumstances,  we  do  not  consider  that  the  honor 
and  dignity  of  the  empire  will  be  compromised  by  resorting  to 

lOO 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

magnanimous  measures  and  by  taking  into  qojjsjdpration  the  gen- 
eral situation  of  affairs.  ,«':';. 

"We  have,  therefore,  accepted  the- advice  of  the  frierdly  pow- 
ers, and  have  commanded  our  governm?T.t  to  reply  c6  'the  'gov- 
ernment of  the  three  powers  to  that  effect." 

The  next  move  in  the  game  was  to  secure  from  China 
authority  to  extend  the  Siberian  road  across  Manchuria. 
In  further  preparation  for  the  accomplishment  of  this 
end  and  object  of  Russian  poHcy,  the  Czar's  good  offices 
to  China  secured  a  reduction  of  one-fifth  of  the  interest 
on  China's  war  debt  and  guaranteed  the  loan  which  the 
Pekin  government  was  forced  to  make,  and  without 
which,  or  a  similar  guarantee,  China  could  not  have 
negotiated  it  at  all.  Indeed,  you  will  be  informed  on 
high  authority  that  this  was  the  sole  consideration  for 
the  concession  by  China  to  Russia  for  the  building  of  the 
Manchurian  railway ;  that  the  rescue  of  the  Manchu  dynas- 
ty had  nothing  to  do  with  it;  and  that  the  "Cassini  Con- 
vention" and  all  rumored  secret  understandings  between 
Russia  and  China  are  purely  mythical.  But  the  course  of 
events  gives  credit  and  plausibility  to  the  other  view.which 
well  illustrates  the  ability  of  Russian  foreign  statesmanship 
to  "sense  a  situation"  and  anticipate  unborn  conditions. 

The  enemies  of  Russia  say  that  it  was  in  anticipation 
of  the  difficulties,  diplomatic  and  others,  involved  in  such 
a  grant  of  powers  that  the  Russian  government  (and, 
if  true,  it  shows  how  superb  their  resource  is  in  foreign 
affairs)  caused  the  famous  Russo-Chinese  Bank  to  be 
incorporated.  The  writer  does  not  credit  this  statement; 
it  is  here  given  only  because  it  is  current.  But,  even  if 
true,  it  does  not  appear  that  such  a  step  is  anything  to 
Russia's  discredit.  If  true,  it  would  appear  to  unprej- 
udiced minds  to  be  quite  the  contrary,  and  to  display  a 
far-sightedness  worthy  of  emulation  by  those  who  look 
only  upon  to-day  and  then  complain  if  the  conditions  of 
to-morrow  are  not  to  their  liking. 

But  it  is  not  important  whether  the  Russo-Chinese 

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LIBRARY 
DIVERSITY  OF  OMmmA 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Bank  was  evoh  e-d  ,by  Witte  as  a  factor  in  this  game  or 
not;  it  existed  when  wanted,  and  that  was  enough.  Ap- 
pHrent])^it.i,s  nothing  bat  a  private  banking  corporation 
with  capital,  stock,  stockholders,  board  of  directors,  and 
all  the  other  machinery  of  such  a  corporation.  "In 
reality,"  said  a  credible  banker  of  the  Far  East,  "it  is 
the  financial  agent  of  the  Russian  government  through- 
out Siberia,  and  especially  the  Orient.  In  reality  it  is 
the  financial  end  of  the  diplomatic  machinery  of  Russia 
in  the  Far  East.  In  reality  it  is  the  empire  of  the 
Czar  engaged  in  the  banking  business." 

All  of  this  appears  to  be  admirable  rather  than  repre- 
hensible; for  Russia  cannot  be  blamed  for  looking  after 
her  own  interests,  and  such  a  bank  is  the  most  powerful 
of  all  agencies  for  the  material  advancement  of  Russian 
trade  and  prestige.  This  bank,  therefore,  secured  from 
the  Chinese  government  a  contract  by  which  to  extend 
the  Siberian  railroad  across  Manchuria,  the  Chinese 
government  giving  the  necessary  authority.  The  founda- 
tion or  beginning  of  this  concession  is  said  to  have  been 
the  famous  "Cassini  Convention,"  negotiated  by  Count 
Cassini,  present  Russian  ambassador  at  Washington. 
When  the  diplomatic  world  first  heard  rumors  of  the 
"  Cassini  Convention  "  there  was  something  like  consterna- 
tion in  the  cabinets  of  Europe,  and  notes  of  inquiry  were 
addressed  to  the  Russian  Foreign  Office,  which  denied 
the  existence  of  such  a  treaty.  But  while  the  "Cassini 
Convention"  as  reported  may  not  have  been  concluded 
in  the  terms  reported  in  the  newspapers,  the  concessions 
were  granted,  and  the  road  is  now  an  accomplished  fact.* 
Thus  does  Russia  proceed,  where  her  foes  inquire  and  pro- 
test. It  is  not  here  stated  that  Russia  ought  to  be  checked ; 
but  if  she  ought,  she  must  be  confronted  by  a  clearly 
thought  out  policy,  continuously  adhered  to  and  backed  by 
the  certainty  of  something  more  than  paper  hostilities. 

'  See  the  reputed  "  Cassini  Convention,"  in  the  Appendix. 

I02 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

You  can  hear  all  sorts  of  rumors  concerning  secret 
understandings  between  the  Russian  and  Chinese  govern- 
ments; it  was  at  one  time  said  that  Li  Hung  Chang  had 
concluded  a  secret  unwritten  arrangement  by  which  the 
Czar  was  to  be  suzerain  of  Manchuria.  Of  course,  all  re- 
ports of  such  secret  understandings  are  rumors,  and  it  is 
impossible  to  tell  whether  there  is  any  truth  in  them. 
It  may  be  said,  however,  that  the  observer  becomes  im- 
pressed with  a  sort  of  atmosphere  of  Russo-Chinese  unity 
quite  impossible  intelligently  to  analyze.  Despite  Chi- 
nese protests  against  the  Russian  advance  and  all  the 
hostile  words  exchanged  between  the  two  governments, 
things  usually  come  out  as  Russia  wishes.  Of  course 
this  may  be  due  to  the  superiority  of  Russian  diplomacy, 
backed  as  it  is  by  armed  force;  but  the  rumors  of  a 
secret  understanding  between  the  two  governments  are 
worth  noting  merely  to  fill  in  the  general  picture.  It 
is  again  repeated  that  any  unspoken,  unwritten  alliance 
is  not  stated  to  be  the  fact,  but  merely  the  suspicion  of 
intelligent  men  familiar  with  the  Far  East. 

Under  concessions  granted  by  the  Chinese  government 
to  the  Russo-Chinese  Bank,  this  financial  arm  of  the 
Russian  government  organized,  under  Russian  laws,  the 
East  China  Railway  Company.  This  company  is  the 
builder  of  the  road.  It  had  a  capital  of  5,000,000  rubles 
($2,500,000),  practically  all  controlled  by  the  Russo- 
Chinese  Bank.  But  the  actual  capital  for  construction 
was  raised  by  an  issue  of  bonds  guaranteed  by  the 
Russian  government.  Most  of  these  bonds,  it  is  be- 
lieved, are  held  by  the  Russian  government  itself,  either 
directly  or  through  the  instrumentality  of  government 
banks.  Thus  the  money  to  build  the  road  comes  out 
of  the  Russian  imperial  treasury  directly.  The  report 
of  the  Minister  of  Finance  for  1900  contains  the  following; 

The  extraordinary  expenditure  is  estimated  at  192,945,424 
rubles,  including  25,195,258  rubles  for  the  construction  of  the 
Siberian  railway;  3,418,524  rubles  for  auxiliary  undertakings  in 

103 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

connection  with  that  railway;  30.573,550  rubles  for  the  construc- 
tion of  other  railways;  43,758,092  rubles  for  the  purchase  of  roll- 
ing stock  for  the  Siberian  and  other  railways;  85,000,000  rubles  for 
loans  to  private  railways,  on  security  of  bonds  guaranteed  by 
government,  and  5,000,000  rubles  for  indemnities  to  private  per- 
sons and  institutions  for  loss  of  the  exclusive  right  of  selling  spirits 
in  retail. 

Though  it  is  not  stated  that  any  of  this  expenditure 
for  that  particular  year  was  for  the  Manchurian  railroad 
specially,  it  is  known  that  a  great  part  of  it  was;  and  the 
budget  of  1900  states  that  the  estimated  expenditure  on 
loans  to  private  railway  companies,  on  security  of  bonds 
guaranteed  by  the  government,  was  82,000,000  rubles 
(about  $41,000,000).  Moreover,  the  report  accompany- 
ing the  Budget  of  the  Minister  of  Finance  declared  that 

The  losses  of  the  East  China  Railway  Company  are  very  great, 
owing  to  the  destruction  of  a  considerable  part  of  the  permanent 
way  in  Manchuria,  and  the  delay  in  the  completion  of  the  unfin- 
ished line;  these  losses  have  had  their  effect  on  the  budget  of  1900 
in  the  form  of  large  grants,  under  the  head  of  extraordinary  ex- 
penditure, for  loans  to  railway  companies. 

So  it  is  not  denied  that  the  great  Manchurian  railway, 
built  ostensibly  by  the  East  China  Railway  Company,  and 
financed  by  the  Russo-Chinese  Bank  under  a  contract 
with  the  Chinese  government,  is,  in  substance  and  in 
practical  reality,  built  by  the  Russian  government,  under 
plans  formulated  in  the  office  of  the  Russian  Minister  of 
Finance  and  upon  disbursements  made  from  the  Russian 
imperial  treasury.  It  is  not  clear  where  rational  fault 
can  be  found  with  the  Russian  government  for  this 
method  of  procedure. 

This  railway  company  is  also  given  certain  mining 
monopolies  in  Manchuria.  Mining  rights  are  usual  coin- 
cidents of  a  railway  concession  anywhere  in  the  Orient, 
and  often  constitute  its  most  valuable  element.  Ac- 
cordingly, Russian  mining-engineers  are  carefully  and 
patiently  investigating  the  mountains  of  Manchuria  in 

104 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

search  chiefly  for  coa!  and  iron — gold  is  a  secondary  con- 
sideration— and,  of  course,  for  any  other  mineral  riches 
which  this  possible  addition  to  the  Russian  Empire  may 
contain.  More  than  one  of  these  Russian  engineers  were 
met  in  the  summer  of  1901,  and  each  of  them  freely  told, 
with  the  enthusiasm  of  the  discoverer,  of  valuable  deposits 
which  he  had  located.  Coal,  iron  ore,  and  rich  indications 
of  gold  have  already  been  found,  and  no  one  need  be 
surprised  if  oil  and  natural-gas  fields,  similar  to  those  of 
Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  and  Indiana,  be  developed  on  the 
other  side  of  the  globe. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  items  of  the  railway  con- 
struction agreement  (actual  language  of  the  agreement  is 
here  condensed): 

First.  The  bonds  of  the  railway  company  shall  be  issued  as  re- 
quired, and  only  with  the  special  sanction  of  the  Russian  Minister 
of  Finance.  The  face  value  and  real  price  of  each  separate  issue 
of  bonds,  and  all  of  the  conditions  of  the  issue,  shall  be  directed 
by  the  Russian  Minister  of  Finance. 

Second.  The  payment  of  interest  on  and  amortization  of  the 
bonds  of  the  Manchurian  railway  shall  be  guaranteed  by  the  Rus- 
sian government  when  issued. 

Third.  The  railway  company  must  secure  advances  upon  these 
bonds  through  the  Russo-Chinese  Bank,  and  not  otherwise;  but 
the  government  itself  may  directly,  if  it  choose,  take  up  the  bond 
issue  as  a  government  investment,  or  upon  loan,  advancing  on  the 
bonds  the  ready  money  needed  by  the  company  from  time  to 
time. 

Fourth.  Money  received  by  the  company  for  these  bonds,  no 
matter  whether  it  is  received  through  the  agency  of  the  Russo- 
Chinese  Bank  or  directly  from  the  government,  or  in  any  other 
manner,  must  be  kept  at  such  places  as  are  designated  by  the 
Russian  Minister  of  Finance,  and  absolutely  under  his  supervision 
and  control. 

Fifth.  The  ready  money  thus  realized  may  be  expended  by  the 
company  in  payment  of  various  items  of  construction,  and,  of 
course,  on  interest  on  bonds  as  the  same  become  due. 

It  thus  appears  that  for  all  practical  purposes  the  work 
is  the  direct  work  of  the   Russian  government,  and  that 

105 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  Russo -Chinese  Bank  and  the  railway  company  are 
nothing  but  agents. 

The  following  are  a  few  of  the  traffic  and  operating 
provisions  of  the  railway  agreement.  (Again  a  conden- 
sation of  the  actual  contract  is  given) : 

First.  The  gauge  of  the  railway  must  be  the  same  as  that  of 
Russian  railways  (five  feet). 

Second.  If  the  Manchurian  railway  becomes  inadecjuate  to 
care  for  the  traffic  turned  over  to  it  by  the  Siberian  and  Ussuri 
railways  or  Russian  ship-lines,  it  shall  increase  its  capacity  upon 
notification  of  the  railway  named.  If  the  Manchurian  and  Si- 
berian railways  disagree  about  this,  the  Russian  Minister  of  Fi- 
nance shall  decide  the  question,  and  if  the  Manchurian  Railway 
Company  has  not  money  enough  to  make  the  improvements,  the 
Russian  Minister  of  Finance  may  supply  the  funds,  if  he  think  wise. 

Third.  Freight,  passenger,  and  all  other  kinds  of  trains  running 
upon  the  Trans-Baikal  Siberian  and  Ussuri  railway  lines  shall 
be  received  by  the  Manchurian  railway  as  if  these  separate  sys- 
tems were  one  system,  in  full  complement,  without  delay  of  any 
kind.  The  same  rate  of  speed  shall  be  maintained  on  the  Man- 
churian lines  as  is  maintained  by  the  Siberian  railways. 

Fourth.  The  Manchurian  Railway  Company  mvist  build  and 
maintain  [it  has  done  this  already]  a  complete  telegraph  line  con- 
necting the  same  with  the  Siberian  and  Russian  service. 

It  is  thus  seen  that  in  the  contract  itself  the  railroad  is 
made  for  all  purposes  a  mere  extension  of  the  Siberian 
system. 

Four  more  provisions  of  this  contract  are  illustrative 
of  the  effect  of  the  road  upon  transportation  reform  in 
China,  already  noted: 

First.  Passengers'  baggage  and  goods  carried  in  transit  shall 
not  be  liable  to  any  Chinese  charges  or  dues. 

Second.  The  tariff  (or  rates)  for  the  carriage  of  all  other  com- 
merce of  the  road  shall  be  free  from  Chinese  taxes  or  dues. 

Third.  The  amount  of  import  and  export  transportation  taxes 
are  fixed  by  special  articles. 

Fourth.  The  Russian  postal  service  shall  be  extended  over  the 
entire  Manchurian  system,  and  the  Russian  letter  and  parcel  post, 
together  with  the  entire  official  machinery  of  the  same,  shall  be 
carried  by  the  railway  company  free  of  charge. 

1 06 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Finally,  it  is  provided  by  this  contract  that  the  Chi- 
nese government  may  purchase  the  road  from  this  rail- 
way company  at  the  end  of  thirty  years,  and  at  the  end 
of  eighty  years  the  whole  property  shall  revert  to  the 
Chinese  government  without  payment  of  any  kind. 

It  is  not  intended  at  this  point  to  set  out  technically 
and  in  detail  the  provisions  of  the  contract  under  which 
the  Manchurian  railway  is  being  constructed.  Enough 
is  given  to  show  the  financial  character  of  the  enterprise, 
its  unity  with  the  Russian  railway  system,  the  beginning 
of  tax  reform  even  before  a  rail  was  laid,  and,  in  general, 
the  legal  outlines  of  the  enterprise.* 

Why,  then,  since  the  Russian  government  is  in  reality 
building  this  road,  does  it  not  build  directly,  without  the 
intervention  of  the  Russo-Chinese  Bank  as  its  financial 
agent  and  the  East  China  Railway  Company  as  its  con- 
structing agent?  Why  is  not  the  construction  agree- 
ment between  the  Russian  and  Chinese  governments 
direct  instead  of  through  these  agencies?  There  are 
many  answers  to  these  questions,  known  to  those  familiar 
with  Russian  railway  construction,  but  there  is  one  sug- 
gested which  is  of  interest  to  other  nations  concerned 
in  the  trade  of  the  Orient. 

That  answer  is  that,  if  Japan  or  any  other  power  ob- 
jects to  the  Russianization  of  Manchuria,  the  Russian 
government  can,  if  it  thinks  expedient,  reply  that  it  is  not 
the  work  of  the  government,  but  of  a  private  corporation, 
whose  interests,  nevertheless,  the  Russian  government 
has  the  right  to  protect,  as  Germany  has  the  right  to, 
and  indeed  does,  protect  the  rights  and  property  of  her 
citizens  and  corporations. 

Again,  if  Russia  sees  fit  to  extend  her  power  still  farther 
towards  the  Chinese  capital,  if  she  desires  to  proceed  even 
farther  southward,  to  the  very  centre  of  China,  and  meet 
the  French  lines  advancing  northward,  thus  making  a 

'  The  entire  railway  agreement  is  given  in  full  in  the  appendix. 

107 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

great  Franco-Russian  trunk-line  throughout  the  length 
of  the  Chinese  Empire  (and  that  this  is  the  intention  is 
thought  probable  by  most  students  of  the  Far  East),  she 
can  do  so  through  the  agency  above  described,  to  whose 
methods  the  Oriental  mind  has  become  accustomed  and  in 
which  the  world  has  acquiesced. 

And,  in  the  third  place,  should  it  become  desirable  to 
exclude  the  goods  of  all  other  nations  (except  such  a 
nation  as  Russia  had  entered  into  a  private  understand- 
ing with)  from  the  interior  of  Manchuria  it  could  be 
done  by  differential  railway  rates  within  the  limits  of  the 
agreement,  and,  upon  complaint  by  any  other  nation 
whose  goods  were  thus  discriminated  against,  Russia 
could  reply  that  the  fixing  of  these  rates  was  a  matter 
of  business  policy  of  the  railway  company.  And  so, 
though  the  closing  of  Chinese  ports  now  controlled  by 
Russia  might  be  resisted  by  other  nations  vitally  inter- 
ested in  the  commerce  of  the  interior,  it  is  reasoned  that 
those  nations  could  not  effectively  object  to  differential 
railway  rates,  which  would  accomplish  precisely  the  same 
result. 

And  so  it  is  that  the  Russian  statesmen  are  extending 
their  net-work  of  power  over  Asia  with  a  far-sightedness 
not  exhibited  in  the  foreign  diplomacy  of  any  other  na- 
tion of  the  present  day,  except,  perhaps,  Germany.  So 
it  is  that  England  may  find  herself  helpless  in  the  presence 
of  accomplished  facts  and  a  series  of  impregnable  diplo- 
matic positions.  So  it  is  that  quietly,  plausibly,  skilfully, 
and  by  the  lasting  methods  of  material  constructiveness, 
Russia  has  achieved  the  first  of  her  plans  for  the  capture 
of  the  only  remaining  uncaptured  markets  of  the  world. 
So  it  is  that,  while  England  and  America  have  been 
wasting  time  on  academic  argumentations  about  un- 
substantial theories,  Germany  has  been  forging  ahead 
towards  the  position  of  the  first  maritime  power  of  the 
twentieth  century,  and  Russia  has  been  placing  on  the 
future  the  mortgage  of  her  material  dominion. 

1 08 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

"Yes,"  said  a  Russian,  "you  may  be  stronger  now, 
richer  now,  than  we  are,  but  we  shall  be  stronger  to- 
morrow than  you — yes,  and  all  the  world ;  for  the  future 
abides  with  the  Slav!"  Such  expressions  you  may  hear 
again  and  again  from  young  Russian  gentlemen  who  have 
not  become  government  haters.  For  example,  take  from 
another  young  Russian  the  following,  which  is  striking; 
"Would  you  know  another  name  for  Russia?  Very  well, 
then,  call  her  'The  Inevitable.'" 


IX 

HOW    RUSSIA    AT    LAST    REACHED    THE    UNFROZEN    SEA 

PREPAREDNESS  is  the  secret  of  most  successes  in 
this  world.  Fate  seldom  makes  league  with  the 
unequipped.  Events  come  marching  into  every  century, 
into  every  day,  crying  aloud  for  the  nation  or  the 
man  who  is  prepared.  Russia's  foreign  statesmanship, 
admittedly  the  ablest  of  the  present  day,  as  her  internal 
development  has  been  admittedly  the  most  backward, 
consists  largely  in  reasoning  out  possible  events  from 
existing  conditions,  and  then  preparing  for  them.  Her 
bloodless  triumph  over  Japan ,  after  Japan 's  bloody  triumph 
over  China,  is  an  illustration  of  this.  When  the  future 
of  Manchuria  looked  most  hopeless  for  Russia,  she  was 
in  reality  winning  her  right  to  build  her  railway  and  cre- 
ating opportunities  for  permanent  occupation,  should  that 
ever  appear  desirable.  But  the  right  to  build  the  rail- 
way did  not  include  the  right  to  occupy  the  two  coveted 
ports  on  the  open  and  ice-free  waters  on  the  south  Man- 
churian  coast — Port  Arthur  and  TalienhvN^an.  She  had 
merely  secured  the  right  to  build  her  railway  across 
Manchuria  to  her  superb  harbor  of  Vladivostock,  which, 
however,  is  open  to  commerce  during  the  winter  months 
only  by  aid  of  ice -breaking  devices.  It  was  Russia's 
desire  to  secure  ports  where  ice  did  not  chain  the  feet  of 
her  commerce.  It  is  believed  that  for  decades  her  in- 
tentions have  been  firmly  fixed  on  the  two  excellent 
Manchurian  ports  above  mentioned. 

Indeed,  some  outlet  on  the  open  oceans  has  been  the 
determination  of  the  Russian  for  centuries. 

no 


-THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

From  the  time  of  Peter  the  Great — he  whom  states- 
men-for-a-day  called  mad,  but  whose  vision  embraced 
all  future  Russian  policy,  so  far  as  the  eye  of  man  can  now 
discern  it — from  the  time  of  this  marvellous  mind  and  will 
till  now,  one  vast  purpose  of  Russia  has  become  so  fixed 
as  to  be  almost  a  religion,  and  that  is  the  determination 
of  the  Slav  to  reach  the  seas  where  summer  skies  await 
him  and  over  whose  waters  the  winds  of  commerce  blow. 
There  is  something  pathetic  about  the  patient  eflfort  of 
the  Russian  to  reach  the  oceans  of  the  globe — to  sail  the 
seas  that  other  men  sail,  to  make  the  ports  that  his 
brothers  make,  and  to  meet  his  fellows  face  to  face  in  all 
the  harbors  of  the  world.  There  is  something  that  wins 
our  sympathy  in  the  Russian's  almost  instinctive  attempts 
to  escape  from  his  vast  and  mighty  cage,  unequalled  in  its 
own  extent  though  that  cage  may  be. 

For  Russia  is  a  cage  and  has  always  been  a  cage — the 
prison  of  a  race.  On  the  west,  milHons  of  gathering 
bayonets  of  Germany  and  all  Europe,  menacing  the  Slav 
with  the  perpetual  possibility  of  war;  on  the  south,  the 
Turk  turning  Russia  backward  from  the  Mediterranean 
and  the  common  highways  of  mankind;  on  the  north,  the 
frozen  Arctic;  on  the  east,  the  savage  and  remorseless 
tribes  of  Asia;  and,  later  in  time  and  farther  in  distance, 
India  disciplined,  armed,  and  fortified  by  England  against 
the  Russian's  progress  towards  the  Oriental  seas.  On 
the  east,  again,  and  farther  south,  between  Siberia  and 
India,  the  ancient  empire  of  the  Son  of  Heaven,  mighty 
in  its  day,  but  now  in  the  period  of  its  decline  and  falling 
in  pieces,  yet  forbidden  to  the  Russian  by  the  masterful 
policy  and  power  of  England  in  former  days,  and  later 
by  the  jealousies  and  fears  of  other  nations.  Turn  where 
he  would,  the  Slav  could  discern  in  the  far  distance  the 
world's  common  oceans,  which  he  felt  to  be  his  common 
right  as  well  as  the  right  of  other  peoples,  but  from  which 
man  and  nature  had  conspired  to  bar  him. 

And  so,  for  this  priceless  privilege  of  the  seas,  the  Slav 

III 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

has  for  centuries  been  battling,  until  by  sheer  experience 
in  the  concentration  of  his  energies  and  thoughts  on 
foreign  policy  he  has  become  the  most  finished  diplomat 
in  the  history  of  negotiation,  and  the  first  in  foreign 
affairs  among  the  statesmen  of  the  nineteenth  and  twen- 
tieth centuries. 

Thus  had  he  armed  his  hand  with  that  skill  which  easily 
defeated  Japan,  easily  discomfited  England,  and  easily 
secured  for  himself  permanent  rights  in  a  dominion  which 
is  itself  an  empire — an  achievement  so  simply  and  so  easily 
accomplished  that,  to  readers  of  the  world's  affairs,  it  ap- 
peared to  be  sheer  luck  or  else  a  very  miracle.  It  was  thus 
he  took  his  first  step  in  Manchuria,  and,  finally,  it  was 
thus  that  he  found  himself  prepared  to  extend  his  advan- 
tages, his  railroad,  his  power,  his  dominion  southward 
through  Manchuria,  and  to  occupy  and  fortify  the  best 
ports  for  commerce  and  war,  with  only  two  exceptions,  on 
all  the  coasts  of  China.  Thus  was  realized  at  last  a  part 
of  his  passion  and  his  dream — open  ports  on  open  seas. 
And  so  it  is  that  the  world  beholds  the  beginning  of  the 
fulfilment  of  the  imperial  Peter's  policy. 

Remember,  then,  that  the  original  railway  agreement 
by  which  Russia  began  to  throw  her  lines  across  Man- 
churia did  not  include  that  branch  which  has  since  be- 
come the  trunk-line  itself,  running  hundreds  of  miles 
through  central  Manchuria  to  Port  Arthur  and  Talienhwan. 
But  the  Slav  was  on  the  ground.  He  was  already  build- 
ing railroads,  as  contemplated  in  the  initial  agreement. 
He  had  already  rescued  China  from  its  conqueror;  he  had 
already  made  the  Manchu  dynasty  his  debtor.  Now  he 
patiently  built  his  railroad  towards  Vladivostock ;  and 
while  he  built  he  patiently  awaited  the  development  of 
events. 

And  events  did  not  disappoint  him.  Once  more  the 
ancient  tale  was  told  of  fate  conspiring  with  him  who  is 
prepared.  Some  time  before  two  German  missionaries 
had  been    wantonly  murdered  in  the  province  of  Shan- 

112 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Tung.  Germany  demanded  reparation.  But  the  nego- 
tiations dragged  their  weary  lengths  along.  The  peculiar 
dilatoriness  characteristic  of  Chinese  diplomacy  promised 
to  make  all  effort  fruitless.  Finally,  the  Geman  Emperor 
landed  marines  at  Tsing-Tau,  the  port  of  Kiaochou, 
seized  the  latter  town  and  the  entire  bay.  No  opinion  is 
here  expressed  as  to  the  right  or  wrong,  the  expediency 
or  the  inexpediency,  of  this  bold  move.  Germany's  friends 
pointed  out,  however,  that  her  justification  existed  in  the 
apparent  impossibility  of  securing  terms  from  China. 
Of  course,  the  critics  of  Germany's  action  stoutly  maintain 
that  she  was  merely  paying  herself  for  her  helpful  attitude 
towards  China  in  the  past. 

Confronted  at  last  by  the  display  of  actual  force,  which 
most  European  statesmen  believe  to  be  the  only  thing  the 
Asiatic  anywhere  understands,  the  Manchu  Emperor  made 
a  definite  grant  to  Germany  of  the  entire  bay  of  Kiao- 
chou, including  the  city  and  port,  and  a  coast  boundary 
of  land  surrounding  it.  The  salient  features  of  this  Kiao- 
chou convention  are  as  follows : 

I.  His  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  China  is  willing  that  German 
troops  take  possession  of  the  above-mentioned  territory  at  any 
time  the  Emperor  of  Germany  chooses.  China  retains  her  sov- 
ereignty over  this  territory,  and  should  she  at  any  time  wish  to 
enact  laws  or  carry  out  plans  within  the  leased  area,  she  shall  be 
at  liberty  to  enter  into  negotiations  with  Germany  with  reference 
thereto,  provided  always,  that  such  laws  or  plans  shall  not  be 
prejudicial  to  German  interests.  Germany  may  engage  in  works 
for  the  public  benefit,  such  as  water- works,  within  the  territory 
covered  b^^  the  lease,  without  reference  to  China.  Should  China 
wish  to  march  troops  or  establish  garrisons  therein,  she  can  ao  so 
only  after  negotiating  with  and  obtaining  the  express  permission 
of  Germany. 

II.  His  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  Germany  being  desirous,  like 
the  rulers  of  certain  other  countries,  of  establishing  a  naval  and 
coaling-station  and  constructing  dock-yards  on  the  coast  of  China, 
the  Emperor  of  China  agrees  to  lease  to  him  for  the  purpose  all  the 
land  on  the  southern  and  northern  sides  of  Kiaochou  Bay  for  a 
term  of  ninety-nine  years,  Germany  to  be  at  liberty  to  erect  forts 
on  this  land  for  the  defence  of  her  possessions  therein. 

8  113 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

III.  During  the  continuance  of  the  lease  China  shall  have  no 
voice  in  the  government  or  administration  of  the  leased  territory. 
It  will  be  governed  and  administered  during  the  whole  term  of 
ninety-nine  years  solely  by  Germany,  so  that  the  possibility  of 
friction  between  the  two  powers  may  be  reduced  to  the  smallest 
magnitude. 

Chinese  ships  of  war  and  merchant  ships,  and  ships  of  war  and 
merchant  ships  of  countries  having  treaties  and  in  a  state  of  amity 
with  China,  shall  receive  equal  treatment  with  German  ships  of 
war  and  merchant  ships  in  Kiaochou  Bay  during  the  continuance 
of  the  lease.  Germany  is  at  liberty  to  enact  any  regulations  she 
desires  for  the  government  of  territory  and  harbor,  provided  such 
regulations  apply  impartially  to  the  ships  of  all  nations,  Germany 
and  China  included. 

IV.  Germany  shall  be  at  liberty  to  erect  whatever  light-houses, 
beacons,  and  other  aids  to  navigation  she  chooses  within  the  ter- 
ritory leased,  and  along  the  islands  and  coasts  approaching  the  en- 
trance to  the  harbor.  Vessels  of  China  and  vessels  of  other  coun- 
tries entering  the  harbor  shall  be  liable  to  special  duties  for  repair 
and  maintenance  of  all  light-houses,  beacons,  and  other  aids  to 
navigation  which  Germany  may  erect  and  establish.  Chinese 
vessels  shall  be  exempt  from  other  special  duties. 

V.  Should  Germany  desire  to  give  up  her  interest  in  the  leased 
territory  before  the  expiration  of  ninety-nine  years,  China  shall 
take  over  the  whole  area  and  pay  Germany  for  whatever  German 
property  may  at  the  time  of  surrender  be  there  situated.  In 
case  of  such  surrender  taking  place,  Germany  shall  be  at  liberty 
to  lease  some  other  point  along  the  coast.  Germany  shall  not 
cede  the  territory  leased  to  any  other  power  than  China.  Chinese 
subjects  shall  be  allowed  to  live  in  the  territory  leased,  under  the 
protection  of  the  German  authorities,  and  there  to  carry  on  their 
avocations  and  business  so  long  as  they  conduct  themselves  as 
peaceable  and  law-abiding  citizens.  Germany  shall  pay  a  rea- 
sonable price  to  the  native  proprietors  for  whatever  lands  her 
government  or  subjects  require.  Fugitive  Chinese  criminals  tak- 
ing refuge  in  the  leased  territory  shall  be  arrested  and  surrendered 
to  the  Chinese  authorities  for  trial  and  ptinishment,  upon  applica- 
tion to  the  German  authorities,  but  the  Chinese  authorities  shall 
not  be  at  liberty  to  send  agents  into  the  leased  territory  to  make 
arrests.  The  German  authorities  shall  not  interfere  with  the 
likin  stations  outside  but  adjacent  to  the  territory. 

In  connection  with  this  lease  the  German  government 
secured  from  the  Chinese  government  a  railway  and  min- 

114 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

ing  concession,  the  leading  features  of  which,  condensed, 
are  as  follows: 


The  Chinese  government  sanctions  the  construction  by  Ger- 
many of  two  Unes  of  railroad  in  Shan-Tung.  [Then  follows  a  de- 
scription of  where  the  first  line  shall  ru.n  and  of  an  extension  to  the 
second  line].  The  construction  of  this  extension  shall  not  be  be- 
gun until  the  first  part  of  the  line,  the  inain  line,  is  completed,  in 
order  to  give  the  Chinese  an  opportunity  of  connecting  this  line  in 
the  most  advantageous  manner  with  their  own  railway  system. 

In  order  to  carry  out  the  above-mentioned  railway  work,  a 
Chino-German  company  shall  be  formed,  with  branches  at  what- 
ever places  may  be  necessary;  and  in  this  company  both  German 
and  Chinese  subjects  shall  be  at  liberty  to  invest  money  if  they 
choose,  and  to  appoint  directors  for  the  management  of  the  under- 
taking. 

All  arrangements  in  connection  with  the  works  specified  shall  be 
determined  bv  a  future  conference  of  German  and  Chinese  repre- 
sentatives. The  Chinese  government  shall  afford  every  facility 
and  protection  and  extend  every  welcome  to  representatives  of 
the  German  railway  company  operating  in  Chinese  territory- 
Profits  derived  from  the  workings  of  these  railroads  shall  be  justly 
divided  pro  rata  between  the  shareholders  without  regard  to  na- 
tionality. The  object  of  constructing  these  lines  is  solely  the  de- 
velopment of  commerce.  In  inaugurating  a  railway  system  in 
Shan-Tung,  Germany  entertains  no  treacherous  intentions  towards 
China,  and  undertakes  not  to  seize  unlawfully  any  land  in  the 
province. 

The  Chinese  government  shall  allow  German  subjects  to  hold 
and  develop  mining  property  for  a  distance  of  thirty  li  from  each 
side  of  these  railways  and  along  the  whole  extent  of  the  lines. 
[Here  follows  description  of  mining  districts  in  detail.]  Chinese 
capital  may  be  invested  in  these  operations,  and  arrangements  for 
carrying  on  the  work  shall  hereafter  be  made  by  a  joint  conference 
of  Chinese  and  German  representatives.  All  German  subjects  en- 
gaged in  such  work  in  Chinese  territory  shall  be  properly  protected 
and  welcomed  by  the  Chinese  avithorities,  and  all  profits  derived 
shall  be  fairly  divided  between  German  and  Chinese  stockholders, 
according  to  the  extent  of  the  interest  they  hold  in  the  undertak- 
ings. In  trying  to  develop  mining  property  in  China,  Germany 
is  actuated  by  no  treacherous  motives  against  this  country,  but 
seeks  alone  to  increase  commerce  and  improve  the  relations  be- 
tween the  two  countries. 

If  at  any  time  the  Chinese  should  form  schemes  for  the  develop- 

115 


THE    RUvSSIAN    ADVANCE 

ment  of  Shan-Tung,  for  the  execution  of  which  it  is  necessary  to 
obtain  foreign  capital,  the  Chinese  government,  or  whatever  Chinese 
■may  be  interested  in  such  scJiemes,  shall,  in  the  first  instance,  apply  to 
German  capitalists. 

Application  shall  also  be  made  to  German  manufacturers  for  the 
necessary  machinery  and  materials  before  the  manufacturers  of  any 
other  power  are  approached. 

Should  German  capitalists  or  manufacturers  decline  to  take  the 
business,  the  Chinese  shall  then  be  at  liberty  to  obtain  money  and 
materials  from  sources  of  other  nationality  than  German. 

The  importance  of  this  lease  and  railway  and  mining  con- 
cession, is  apparent  on  the  face  of  the  documents  them- 
selves, and  in  another  chapter  further  remarks  will  be  made 
concerning  them.  They  are  inserted  at  this  point  as  neces- 
sary links  in  the  chain  of  the  story  of  Russia's  occupation 
of  south  Manchuria,  and  of  the  military,  naval,  and 
commercial  ports  on  the  shores  of  the  Chinese  waters;  also, 
they  are  believed  to  be  of  interest  as  an  example  of  what  a 
Chinese  railway  concession  to  a  first-class  power  is  like. 

When  Germany  seized  Kiaochou,  Russia  was  not  long 
in  acting.  Russia  reasoned  thus:  Here  was  a  seizure  of 
territory  by  an  empire  which  is  already  one  of  the  great 
powers,  and  which  has  declared  ambitions  to  become  the 
first  and  chiefest  power  among  the  nations.  Here  was 
Germany  throwing  her  influence  across  the  path  of  Rus- 
sian intentions  in  Asia,  as  she  has  so  effectively  thrown 
ner  financial  and  commercial  power  across  the  path  of 
Russia,  and  of  England  too,  in  Turkey  and  Asia  Minor. 
And  here  was  this  seizure  of  territory,  an  extension  of 
physical  and  material  influence  into  the  very  breast  of 
China,  sanctioned  by  the  Chinese  government. 

The  event  for  which  Russia  was  prepared  had  oc- 
curred at  last.  Very  clearly,  if  the  seizure  of  a  portion  of 
Chinese  territory  by  Japan,  as  her  price  of  peace  in  closing 
her  war  with  China,  was  a  menace  to  the  permanent  peace 
of  the  Orient,  Germany's  seizure  of  territory  in  the  very 
centre  of  the  Chinese  coast  was  equally  a  menace.  True 
that  Germany,  Russia,  and  France  had  protested  against 

ii6 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Japan's  occupation  of  a  portion  of  Chinese  territory;  true 
that  Germany's  seizure  of  Kiaochou  and  the  extension 
of  German  railways  into  one  of  China's  great  provinces 
was  inconsistent  with  the  allies'  protest  against  Japan's 
occupation  of  southern  Manchuria;  true  that  the  im- 
plied understanding  as  to  the  integrity  of  China,  neces- 
sarily involved  in  the  allies'  protest  to  Japan,  had  been 
broken. 

But,  said,  in  effect,  the  Russian  statesmen,  it  was  not 
Russia  that  had  broken  it.  It  was  not  Russia  that  had 
changed  these  conditions.  Apparently,  so  far  as  the  letter 
of  the  implied  agreement  was  concerned,  Russia  had  been 
faithful  to  the  understanding.  But  now  conditions  were 
changed,  and  through  no  fault  of  Russia.  She  was  justi- 
fied in  protecting  her  interests,  then.  Nobody  could  find 
any  fault  with  that.  She  would  protect  her  interests 
therefore.  If  Germany  received  a  port,  so  should  Russia 
receive  a  port.  If  Germany  occupied  Kiaochou,  Russia 
should  occupy  Port  Arthur  and  Talienhwan.  So  reasoned 
Russian  statesmen.  Such  was  her  representation  to 
China.  Such  was  her  case  before  the  public  opinion  of 
the  world.  Like  lightning,  she  carried  this  determina- 
tion into  effect.  The  German  lease  was  dated  March  6, 
1898. 

On  March  27th  of  the  same  year  a  treaty  was  signed  by 
the  representatives  of  the  Chinese  and  Russian  govern- 
ments, leasing  Port  Arthur  and  Talienhwan  to  the  Czar, 
and  extending  all  railroad  construction  rights  from  where 
the  line  of  the  road  crosses  north-central  Manchuria  on 
its  way  to  Vladivostock  southward  to  these  ports. 

And  because  the  Russian  lease,  like  the  German  grant 
and  concession,  is  fundamental,  because  it,  like  the 
German  lease,  is  an  historical  and  political  landmark, 
from  which  the  beginning  of  the  disintegration  of  China, 
in  a  physical,  tangible,  and  material  sense,  may  be 
reckoned,  if  that  break-up  ever  occurs,  it  is  here  set  out 
almost  in  full: 

117 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Article  I. — It  being  necessary  for  the  due  protection  of  her 
navy  in  the  waters  of  north  China  that  Russia  should  possess  a 
station  she  can  defend,  the  Emperor  of  China  agrees  to  lease  to 
Russia  Port  Arthur  and  TaUenhwan,  together  with  the  adjacent 
seas,  but  on  the  understanding  that  such  lease  shall  not  prejudice 
China's  sovereignty  over  this  territory. 

Article  II. — The  limits  of  the  territory  thus  leased,  for  the  rea- 
sons above  stated,  as  well  as  the  extent  of  territory  north  of  Ta- 
lienhwan  necessary  for  the  defence  of  that  now  leased,  and  what 
shall  be  allowed  to  be  leased,  shall  be  strictly  defined,  and  all  de- 
tails necessary  to  the  carrying  out  of  this  treaty  be  arranged  at 
St.  Petersburg  with  Hsu  Tajen  so  soon  as  possible  after  the  signa- 
ture of  the  present  treaty,  and  embodied  in  a  separate  treaty. 
Once  these  limits  have  been  determined,  all  land  held  by  Chinese 
within  such  limits,  as  well  as  the  adjacent  waters,  shall  be  held  by 
Russia  alone  on  lease. 

Article  III. — The  duration  of  the  lease  shall  be  twenty-five 
years  from  the  day  this  treaty  is  signed,  but  may  be  extended  by 
mutual  agreement  between  Russia  and  China. 

Article  IV, — The  control  of  all  military  forces  in  the  territory 
leased  by  Russia,  and  of  all  naval  forces  in  the  adjacent  seas,  as 
well  as  of  the  civil  officials  in  it,  shall  be  vested  in  one  high  Russian 
official,  who  shall,  however,  be  designated  by  some  title  other  than 
Governor-General  (Tsung-tu)  or  Governor  (Hsun-fu).  All  Chinese 
military  forces  shall,  without  exception,  be  withdrawn  from  the 
territory,  but  it  shall  remain  optional  with  the  ordinary  Chinese 
inhabitants,  either  to  remain  or  to  go,  and  no  coercion  shall  be 
used  against  them  in  this  matter.  Should  they  remain,  any  Chi- 
nese charged  with  a  criminal  offence  shall  be  handed  over  to  the 
nearest  Chinese  official,  to  be  dealt  with  according  to  Article  VIII, 
of  the  Russo-Chinese  treaty  of  iS6o. 

Article  V. — To  the  north  of  the  territory  leased  shall  be  a  zone, 
the  extent  of  which  shall  be  arranged  at  St.  Petersburg,  between 
Hsu  Tajen  and  the  Russian  Foreign  Office.  Jurisdiction  over  this 
zone  shall  be  vested  in  China,  but  China  may  not  quarter  troops  in 
it  except  with  the  previous  consent  of  Russia. 

Article  VI. — The  two  nations  agree  that  Port  Arthur  shall  be  a 
naval  port  for  the  sole  use  of  Russian  and  Chinese  men-of-war,  and 
be  considered  as  an  unopen  port  so  far  as  the  naval  and  mercantile 
vessels  of  other  nations  are  concerned.  As  regards  Talienhwan, 
one  portion  of  the  harbor  shall  be  reserved  exclusively  for  Russian 
and  Chinese  men-of-war,  just  like  Port  Arthur,  but  the  remainder 
shall  be  a  commercial  port,  freely  open  to  the  merchant  vessels  of 
all  countries. 

Article  VII. — Port  Arthur  and  Talienhwan  are  the  points  in 

H8 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  territory  leased  most  important  for  Russian  military  purposes. 
Russia  shall,  therefore,  be  at  liberty  to  erect  forts  at  her  own  ex- 
pense, and  to  build  barracks  and  provide  defences  at  such  places 
as  she  desires. 

Article  VIII. — China  agrees  that  the  procedure  sanctioned  in 
1896,  regarding  the  construction  of  railroads  by  the  Board  of  the 
Eastern  China  Railway  Company,  shall,  from  the  date  of  the  signa- 
ture of  this  treaty,  be  extended  so  as  to  include  the  construc- 
tion of  a  branch  line  to  Talienhwan,  or,  if  necessary,  in  view  of  the 
interests  involved,  of  a  branch  line  to  the  most  suitable  point  on 
the  coast  between  New-Chwang  and  the  Yalu  River.  Further, 
the  agreement  entered  into  in  September,  1896,  between  the 
Chinese  government  and  the  Russo-Chinese  Bank  shall  apply  with 
equal  strength  to  this  branch  line.  The  direction  of  this  branch 
line  and  the  places  it  shall  touch  shall  be  arranged  between  Hsu 
Tajen  and  the  Board  of  Eastern  Railroads.  The  construction  of 
this  line  shall  never,  however,  be  made  a  ground  for  encroaching 
on  the  sovereignty  of  China. 

It  will  be  observed  that  Russia's  lease  of  Port  Arthur 
and  Talienhwan  is  for  the  period  of  twenty-five  years. 
But  note  also  that  the  first  article  states  that  the  lease 
is  made  because  it  is  necessary  for  the  due  protection  of 
Russia's  navy  in  the  waters  of  north  China  that  Russia 
shall  possess  a  station  she  can  defend. 

Also  note,  as  with  Germany  in  Shan-Tung,  authority  is 
given  to  fortify;  and  note,  most  of  all,  that  Russia  has 
acted  upon  this  authority.  The  harbor  at  Port  Arthur 
is  deep  and  narrow  and  not  over  large,  and  is  surrounded 
by  high,  almost  mountainous  hills.  With  all  speed,  day 
and  night,  Russia  instantly  began  planting  impregnably 
her  power  on  these  eminences.  At  the  time  the  writer 
reached  Port  Arthur,  at  the  end  of  the  journey  of  investi- 
gation through  Manchuria,  work  was  still  in  progress. 
Trench  and  earthwork  and  guns — not  frowning  guns,  but 
guns  that  hide  their  menace — and  all  the  incidents  of 
modern  fortification  were  being  perfected  over  this  mari- 
time terminus  of  her  railroad.  With  the  foundation  of 
her  physical  authority  planted  deeply,  even  to  the  hearts 
of  the  everlasting  hills,  it  is  not  likely  that  Russia  will 

119 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

ever  depart,  at  least  from  Port  Arthur  and  Talienhwan. 
It  is  the  last  and  most  conclusive  piece  of  evidence  to 
sustain  the  proposition  that  she  intends  to  remain  in 
Manchuria,  and  permanently. 

Statements  to  the  contrary  were  made  by  the  highest 
authorities  in  the  diplomatic  world.  If,  in  1901,  you 
asked  an  English  diplomat,  an  American  diplomat,  most 
of  all  a  Russian  diplomat  himself,  "Does  Russia  intend 
to  occupy  Manchuria  permanently?"  each  of  them  would 
have  assured  you,  and  sincerely  too,  that  she  did  not. 
An  eminent  American  diplomatist  in  conversation,  in  the 
fall  of  1 90 1,  ridiculed  the  statement  that  Russia  was  a 
fixture  in  Manchuria.  The  suggestion,  made  at  the  same 
time  in  published  articles,  was  received  with  incredulity 
by  the  great  body  of  the  American  press.  You  were  told, 
too,  that  even  then  Russia  was  urging  upon  China  a 
treaty  providing  for  Russia's  departure  from  Manchuria 
and  for  her  evacuation  of  even  Port  Arthur.  No  doubt, 
such  a  treaty  was  being  presented  to  the  Chinese 
court,  but  also,  no  doubt,  such  a  treaty  will  never  be 
signed. 

And  if  it  be  not,  will  it  not  become  clear  to  the  simplest 
mind  that  again  Russia  has  made  a  paper  record  of  non- 
aggression  and  of  a  willingness  to  surrender  which  all  the 
world  may  read?  And  is  not  that  a  strategic  position 
of  commanding  value  in  Russia's  frontier  negotiations  upon 
the  Pacific  ?  Can  she  not  point  to  the  fact  that  it  was  not 
she  who  violated  the  spirit  of  the  allied  protest  to  Japan 
concerning  the  occupation  of  Manchuria,  but  another? 
that  it  was  not  she  who  was  the  first  to  seize  Chinese  terri- 
tory, but  another?  that  she  secured  the  lease  of  Port 
Arthur  and  Talienhwan  and  adjacent  territory  only  as  a 
matter  of  self-defence?  and  that,  finally,  she  has  actually 
proposed  a  treaty  for  the  withdrawal  from  every  foot  of 
Chinese  territory? 

For  that  is  the  case  on  the  record  which  Russia  has 
made  to  the  world;  and  should  the  Manchu  Emperor 

120 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

decline  to  sign  such  a  treaty,  has  Russia  not  put  the 
Pekin  government  under  additional  guarantee  and  bonds? 
And  so  it  appears  improbable  that  Russia  will  with- 
draw from  Manchuria.  Her  railroad  is  there,  her  ships 
are  there,  her  mines  are  there.  Coal,  iron,  silver,  gold, 
and  other  treasures  of  mineral  wealth — all  Russia's  under 
her  railway  agreement — are  chere.  Soil  which  will  grow 
any  vegetable  in  the  temperate  zones  and  some  of  those 
of  the  semi-tropic  countries  are  there.  (You  may  see 
wheat,  barley,  oats,  tobacco,  potatoes,  Indian  corn,  beans, 
millet  growing  in  fields  that  look  like  miniature  American 
farms,  or,  rather,  like  overgrown  American  gardens,  in  all 
the  inhabited  portions  of  Manchuria.  The  soil  is  so  rich 
that  many  crops  were  seen,  in  the  summer  of  1901 ,  already 
beginning  to  grow  in  the  same  fields  from  which  the  first 
crop  had  been  gathered  only  a  fortnight  before.)  All 
these  are  there.  And,  most  of  all,  the  command  of  all 
China,  the  point  from  which  the  sceptre  of  the  Russian 
Autocrat  may  be  extended  over  all  the  East,  is  there.  The 
throne  of  the  future  of  the  Orient  appears  to  be  planted 
now  upon  the  eminence  that  lifts  above  the  waters  of 
Port  Arthur,  and  above  it  already  floats  the  Russian 
flag. 


COLLISION    OF    RUSSIA  S    ADVANCE    WITH    JAPAN 

THERE  is  but  one  agency  which  might  dislodge  the 
Russian  from  Manchuria;  that  agency  is  the  sword- 
like bayonets  of  the  soldiers  of  Japan,  the  war-ships  of 
Japan,  the  siege-guns  of  Japan,  the  embattled  frenzy  of  a 
nation  stirred  to  its  profoundest  depths  by  the  conviction 
that  the  Czar  has  deprived  the  Mikado  of  the  greatest  vic- 
tory and  the  richest  prize  in  all  the  history  of  the  Island 
Empire — a  history  which  reaches  back  not  through  cen- 
turies, but  through  millenniums.  And  that  Japan  is  de- 
termined that  Russia  shall  withdraw  from  Manchuria  no 
careful  student  on  the  ground  can  doubt.  No  thoughtful 
student  of  geography  can  doubt  it. 

War  between  Russia  and  Japan  is  a  serious  probability. 
It  is  believed  by  the  best  informed  that  it  would  be  raging 
now  if  Japan  had  the  money.  It  came  near  breaking  out 
in  February,  1901,  in  spite  of  the  Mikado's  poverty.  Only 
the  financial  situation  muzzles  the  artillery  of  the  England 
of  the  Orient.  And  Russia's  financial  situation  is  almost 
as  bad.  And  so  it  is  that  both  Russia  and  Japan  will  hesi- 
tate to  give  the  other  a  casus  belli.  All  statesmen  are 
obliging,  conciliatory,  reasonable  when  confronted  with 
the  grim  alternative  of  armed  conflict  before  they  are 
ready  for  it.  But,  however  long  the  want  of  actual  cash 
may  postpone  this  conflict,  it  is  hard  to  see  how  it  is  to  be 
avoided  in  the  end.  If  it  is  put  off  for  five  years,  the 
causes  for  it  will  still  remain;  if  it  is  put  off  for  ten  years, 
yet  will  those  causes  persist ;  if  it  is  put  off  for  a  quarter  of 
a.  century,  nevertheless  the  elements  of  conflict  will  con- 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

tinue.     What  then  are  those  enduring  causes  which  time 
itself,  as  it  now  appears,  cannot  remove? 

Look  at  your  map.  Just  above  Japan,  within  hardly 
more  than  a  day's  sail,  is  Vladivostock,  one  of  the  finest 
harbors  for  naval  and  military  purposes  in  the  world,  and 
one  whose  only  defect  is  its  three  months  of  ice.  It  is  the 
Gibraltar  of  the  East.  And  it  is  Russian.  In  its  waters 
the  Russian  war-ships  lie  safe  from  all  attack.  From  its 
wharves  Russian  railways  run  northward  through  Russian 
wheat-fields  to  the  Russian  capital  of  east  Siberia. 

Cross  now,  southward,  a  peninsula  and  reach  the  sea; 
and  travel,  still  south,  the  shores  of  the  sea  till  you  come  to 
the  mate  of  Vladivostock,  Port  Arthur,  of  which  so  much 
has  already  been  said.  Here,  again,  the  war-ships  of  Rus- 
sia are  within  instant  touch  of  Japan.  Here,  again,  they 
lie  in  safety,  secure  from  all  attack.  Again,  from  the 
wharves  of  this  southern  Vladivostock  the  Russian  railway 
lines  run  northward;  and  though  the  territory  through 
which  these  railway  lines  run  is  still  nominally  Chinese, 
the  facts  here  presented  show  that,  for  all  practical  pur- 
poses, it  may,  in  the  future,  become  Russian,  if  the  Rus- 
sian wills  it  so. 

North  of  this  peninsula,  then,  are  Russian  ports,  Rus- 
sian ships,  and  Russian  guns;  a  Russian  railway,  Russian 
commerce,  the  Russian  people.  Back  of  this  peninsu- 
la, again,  are  Russian  railways,  Russian  commerce,  and 
Russian  bayonets.  South  of  this  peninsula,  again,  are 
Russian  harbors,  Russian  guns,  Russian  commerce,  and 
Russian  railways. 

And  this  peninsula,  running  out  from  these  Russian  en- 
vironments, almost  touches  Japan  itself.  As  a  Japanese 
statesman  said,  in  speaking  of  this  peninsula,  "It  is  like 
an  arrow,  with  the  point  aimed  at  our  heart." 

This  peninsula  is  Korea,  and  it  is  inevitable  that  Korea 
shall  become  either  Russian  or  Japanese.  And  if  it  be 
Japanese,  it  will  be  a  powerful  factor  in  preventing  Man- 
churia from  ever  becoming  Russian. 

123 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Let  us  listen  again  to  the  Japanese  publicist  just  quoted. 
"The  absorption,"  said  he,  "of  Manchuria  by  the  Rus- 
sians, if  completed,  renders  the  position  of  Korea  precari- 
ous. And  Korea  is  a  matter  of  first  and  last  importance 
to  us.     Korea  is  life  or  death  to  Japan." 

"Yes,"  said  another  Japanese  publicist,  of  high  intelli- 
gence, "if  I  were  a  Russian  I  might  insist  on  Korea  becom- 
ing Russian;  but  as  I  am  a  Japanese,  for  the  safety  of  my 
country,  I  insist  that  it  shall  become  Japanese,  and  upon 
that  insistence  every  subject  of  the  Mikado  is  willing  to 
lay  down  his  life." 

"Ah,"  said  a  Japanese  diplomat,  in  concluding  an  ab- 
sorbing conversation  upon  the  next  great  crisis  of  the 
world,  "Korea  must  be  Russian  or  Japanese,  it  is  said. 
Yes.  Well,  in  that  case,  it  will  become  Japanese.  Every 
one  of  Japan's  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  soldiers 
will  die,  if  need  be,  to  achieve  this  victory  for  his  em- 
peror— this  act  of  international  justice,  this  guarantee  of 
the  safety  of  the  Japanese  nation.  And,  after  our  soldiers 
are  gone,  the  nation  itself,  man,  woman,  and  child,  will 
battle,  forty  millions  of  us,  till  the  last  yen  is  gone  and  the 
last  life  yielded.  I  mean  what  I  say.  It  is  with  us  no 
statesman's  policy;  it  is  with  us  the  settled  purpose  and 
the  burning  passion  of  a  people." 

This  is  fervid  language;  but  talks  with  merchants,  with 
guides,  with  even  the  common  people  of  Japan,  will  con- 
vince you  that  this  Japanese  diplomat's  Oriental  eloquence 
is  quite  within  the  limits  of  the  truth. 

Here,  then,  is  reason  enough,  and  there  are  other  rea- 
sons still  more  profound.  Japan  is  already  seriously  crowd- 
ed for  living-room  for  her  people.  During  the  past  ages 
of  her  history,  the  birth  rate  was,  no  doubt,  as  great  as 
now,  but  the  death  rate  also  was  almost  equally  great. 
And  so  her  population,  during  many  centuries,  was  very 
steady,  just  as  China's  is  to-day.  But  in  recent  years 
Japan  has  become  a  modern  hygienic  nation.  The  science 
of  medicine  has  made  no  such  progress  anywhere  in  the 

124 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Orient  as  in  this  island-empire.  Indeed,  comparing  her 
ignorance  of  the  heahng  art,  even  in  recent  years,  with  the 
high  position  she  occupies  to-day,  her  medical  progress  is 
the  greatest,  relatively  speaking,  in  the  world.  A  con- 
spicuous illustration  of  this  is  found  in  her  quarantine 
system,  which  is  far  and  away  the  most  perfect  in  detail 
and  careful  in  administration  of  any  quarantine  system 
on  the  globe. 

Four  years  ago  a  certain  ship  entered  the  port  of  Naga- 
saki. The  quarantine  officers  made  that  careful  in- 
spection of  passengers  with  which  all  Oriental  travellers 
are  familiar.  Finally,  one  man  was  taken  from  the  ship 
who  had  some  little  indications  of  fever.  By  sunset  that 
man  was  dead  of  the  bubonic  plague.  The  ship  was  ac- 
cordingly quarantined  for  eight  days.  Its  disinfection  by 
the  Japanese  quarantine  officers  was  as  thorough  as  could 
possibly  be  done  by  any  medical  men  in  the  world.  Dur- 
ing these  eight  days  the  writer,  by  special  courtesies,  was 
permitted  to  carefully  inspect  the  whole  quarantine  es- 
tablishment at  this  important  place,  and  to  have  long 
talks  with  the  medical  authorities.  Similar  examinations 
were  made  elsewhere,  and  the  perfection  of  Japan's  quar- 
antine system  compelled  heartiest  admiration.  So  it  is 
that,  while  the  plague  may  ravage  China,  which  is  almost 
within  sight  of  the  Japanese  shores,  the  Japanese  millions 
have  been  made  secure  from  its  dread  invasion.  And 
medical  advance  in  other  directions  is  being  made  with 
astonishing  rapidity  throughout  the  little  group  of  islands 
where  live  the  forty  odd  millions  of  the  Mikado's  subjects. 

The  result,  of  course,  will  occur  to  any  one.  The 
birth  rate  continues  as  great  as  formerly,  and  in  only  two 
or  three  places  in  the  world  is  it  greater  than  in  Japan; 
but  the  death  rate  daily  decreases.  The  population  of 
Japan,  therefore,  steadily  and  rapidly  increases.  Japan 
has  no  method  of  relieving  this  accession  of  numbers  by 
emigration  as  Germany  has,  so  we  find  her  in  the 
condition  in  which  Germany  would  find  herself  if  the 

125 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

millions  of  Germans  who  have  come  to  America  and  the 
other  millions  who  have  gone  elsewhere  throughout  the 
world  had  all  been  kept  at  home.  So  Japan  is  looking 
for  some  place  to  plant  her  surplus  millions.  This  was 
one  of  the  three  or  four  great  reasons  for  acquiring 
Formosa;  it  is  one  of  the  vital  reasons  for  ultimately 
occupying  Korea.  Manchuria,  with  its  comparatively 
scanty  population,  and  climatic  conditions  like  those  of 
Japan,  would  have  been  an  ideal  spot  for  the  planting 
of  a  Japanese  empire  with  the  surplus  Japanese  popu- 
lation. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  addition  to  the  other  reasons 
given  why  Russia  considers  Manchuria  desirable,  is  the 
fact  that  she,  also,  feels  that  the  natural  pressure  of 
her  population  requires  Russian  occupation  of  Man- 
churia. It  is  not  a  matter  of  future  speculation,  but  only 
of  simple  arithmetic  and  of  near-by  certainty,  that  Siberia 
will  be  as  thickly  peopled  as  Russia  itself.  When  that 
occurs,  the  overflow  can  go  no  place  but  southward, 
through  the  fertile  valleys  of  Manchuria. 

Still  another  fundamental  reason  for  this  conflict  is  that 
which  gave  rise  to  the  triple  alliance,  whose  diplomacy 
and  menace  drove  Japan  from  southern  Manchuria  after 
her  war  with  China.  This  is  the  fear  entertained  by 
every  Russian,  German,  and  French  statesman,  in  com- 
mon with  every  student  of  Oriental  affairs,  that  Japan 
intends  to  undertake  the  reorganization  of  the  Chinese 
Empire;  and  that  Japan  regards  this  as  her  "destiny" 
no  one  who  has  gone  over  the  ground  will  deny.  The 
reasons  for  it  are  powerful.  They  grow  out  of  the 
elements  of  race  and  geography.  The  Japanese  and 
Chinese  are  both  Asiatics.  Their  written  language  is 
very  similar,  and  for  practical  purposes  the  same;  some 
of  their  religions  are  identical;  their  modes  of  thought 
are  so  much  alike  that  the  Japanese  may  be  said  to  be 
the  only  people  who  understand  the  Chinese.  In  this, 
it  is  true,  the  Russian  is  a  close  second  to  the  Japanese. 

126 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Furthermore,  they  are  so  close  together  that  they  may  be 
said  to  be  physically  in  elbow  touch. 

Indeed,  Japan,  it  is  said,  has  already  begun  work  upon 
a  far-sighted  programme  of  China's  reorganization.  The 
reported  employment  of  Japanese  professors  in  the  Im- 
perial University  at  Pekin  is  an  illustration.  The  em- 
ployment of  Japanese  officers  in  the  Chinese  army  in  the 
place  of  European  officers  is  still  a  more  significant  one. 
This  plan  is  very  great  in  its  outlines.  It  comprehends 
the  modernizing  of  all  the  schools  of  China,  substituting 
for  the  study  of  the  ancient  classics  the  acquirement  of 
modern  scientific  and  useful  knowledge;  it  includes  the 
opening  up  of  the  country  by  the  gradual  construction 
of  highways;  it  looks  to  a  systematic  policing  of  the 
entire  empire. 

Indeed,  an  entire  chapter  might  be  written,  and  upon 
respectable  authority,  describing  the  ultimate  inten- 
tions which  Japan  entertains  as  to  China.  It  sometimes 
seems  that  her  statesmen  do  not  take  very  much  pains 
to  conceal  them.  There  is  no  doubt  that  up  to  the 
present  she  has  earnestly  hoped  that  she  might  be  aided 
in  this,  her  high  dream  of  Oriental  dominion,  by  an 
alliance  with  England  and  America;  and  although  such 
an  alliance  would  rob  her  of  most  of  the  fruit  of  her 
statesmanship,  she  would  be  only  too  glad  to  make  the 
division  for  the  invaluable  aid  of  these  two  powers. 
It  is  believed,  however,  that  she  has  abandoned  hope  of 
such  a  far-reaching,  hard-and-fast  compact,  and  that 
she  has  finally  come  to  the  consciousness  that  she  must 
go  it  alone. 

Of  course,  if  Japan  should  thus  become  the  dominant 
influence  in  China,  her  merchants  and  manufacturers 
would  capture  the  lion's  share  of  the  vast  future  com- 
merce of  the  Flowery  Kingdom.  Such  Japanese  pre- 
dominance in  China  would  also  make  of  China  a  far 
more  powerful  barrier  against  Russian  advance  than 
Japan  itself  now  is. 

137 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

It  is  thus  easy  to  see  that  the  Japanese  conception  of 
the  Oriental  "destiny"  of  Japan  and  the  Russian  con- 
ception of  the  Oriental  "destiny"  of  Russia  come  into 
a  face-to-face  conflict.  On  the  one  hand,  Russia  would 
be  deprived  of  the  markets  which  she  hopes  in  the  future 
(perhaps  not  for  a  century  or  two)  to  be  able  to  as  perfectly 
control  physically  as  she  now  controls  those  of  her  own 
dominions;  on  the  other  hand,  a  halt  would  be  called  to 
the  march  of  her  alleged  national  ideal  of  setting  up  the 
cross  over  China's  myriads  of  millions,  of  which  ideal 
something  will  be  said  in  a  later  chapter.  Even  if 
Japan's  programme  were  carried  out  with  the  co-operation 
of  England  and  the  United  States,  the  effect  upon  Russia 
would  be  precisely  the  same.  So  it  appears  that  this 
dispute,  whose  springs  are  deep  in  the  rocks  and  soil 
of  circumstances,  seemingly  beyond  the  control  of  any 
human  statesmanship,  may  have  to  be  settled,  in  the 
final  analysis,  by  trial  of  battle. 

And  if  war  does  come,  there  are  more  contradictory 
elements  of  strength,  more  contradictory  conditions, 
more  premises  upon  which  wagers  for  either  side  might 
be  reasonably  made  than  in  any  war  of  modern  times — 
the  Japanese  navy,  the  Russian  navy;  Japanese  prepared- 
ness, Russian  preparedness;  the  Japanese  soldier,  the 
Russian  soldier;  the  skill,  valor,  the  staying  powers  of 
the  flower  of  the  people  of  the  Orient,  against  the  slowest, 
most  undeveloped,  but  yet  the  most  tenacious  and  most 
unexhausted  race  of  the  Occident.  It  will  be  a  great 
drama,  and  when  the  curtain  falls  on  its  last  desperate 
act  the  destiny  of  the  East,  and  in  a  certain  sense 
the  future  of  the  world,  will  be  forecast  by  the  flag 
which  flies  in  triumph  over  the  carnage  of  that  final 
conflict. 

This  probable  and  prospective  war  between  Japan  and 
Russia  will  be  a  conflict  not  only  of  opposing  interests 
but  of  singularly  acute  race  antipathies.  Tolerant  as  the 
Russians  are  of  other  races,  their  hatred  of  the  Japanese 

128 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

is  pronounced  and  apparently  instinctive.  Also,  there 
is  in  it  an  element  of  contempt.  At  a  Moscow  dinner- 
table  the  progress  of  the  Japanese  was  remarked  and  the 
word  civilization  applied  to  them.  "  Civilization !"  quick- 
ly spoke  up  a  banker,  with  an  eager  spirit  not  in  keeping 
with  his  calm  calling.  "Civilization!  You  don't  mean 
that.  You  mean  imitation.  Everything  is  on  the  sur- 
face.    Everything  is  temporary — false!" 

And  this  same  harsh  idea  was  voiced  by  Cierpitsky's 
common  soldiers  in  the  middle  of  Manchuria.  An  officer 
was  indulging  in  an  informal  talk  to  several  hundreds  of 
his  soldiers  (this  is  a  characteristic  of  the  Russian  army). 
Here  is  the  conversation  as  it  occurred,  repeated  verbatim 
and  with  literal  accuracy.  An  officer  leaning  out  of  a 
window  said  to  the  assembled  soldiers: 

"Well,  boys,  are  you  glad  this  campaign  is  over?" 

The  soldiers  answered  in  their  customary  chorus:  "  Yes, 
our  colonel,  but  we  are  willing  to  fight  again." 

Colonel:  " If  the  Japanese  come,  will  you  let  them  whip 
3'ou  or  will  you  whip  them?" 

Soldiers,  in  chorus:  "What!  Those  monkeys  whip  us? 
Never,  our  colonel!" 

This  same  sentiment  was  found  among  the  Siberian 
miners.  "I  cannot  tolerate  the  Japanese,"  said  a  Sibe- 
rian mine -owner,  who  has  travelled  very  extensively. 
"They  are  such  make-believe  people,  and  there  are 
other  things  about  them."  And  then  very  unpleasant 
references  were  made  to  the  Japanese. 

These  pages  might  be  entirely  taken  up  with  similar 
expressions  from  business-men,  bankers,  soldiers,  officers. 

It  is  even  denied  that  the  Japanese  are  content  with 
their  evolution  into  European  civilization.  "They  are  riot 
capable  of  it,  and  actually  despise  it,"  said  a  Russian 
diplomat  in  a  certain  Asiatic  station.  "They  are  already 
beginning  to  abandon  the  externalization  of  our  European 
civilization  as  a  child  throws  away  a  new  toy.  For 
example :   In  Tokio  a  very  prominent  public  man  and  his 

9  129 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

wife  adopted  European  modes  of  dress  when  that  craze 
took  them  off  their  feet  some  years  ago.  Their  daughters 
were  reared  in  Enghsh  clothes.  Well,  last  year  those 
daughters  threw  away  their  Paris  -  made  gowns  and  re- 
sumed the  native  Japanese  kimono;  and  instances  like 
that  could  be  given  by  the  hundred." 

The  deep  dislike  of  the  Japanese  for  the  Russian  is 
even  more  passionate.  "They  cannot  be  trusted;  they 
will  violate  any  compact  when  their  selfish  interests 
dictate,"  was  the  expression  of  a  Japanese  of  good  birth, 
good  education,  and  good  condition.  "They  are  the 
spoilers  of  the  world,"  said  another.  "When  has  Russia 
kept  faith?     When  has  she  ceased  to  slay  and  debauch?" 

These  expressions  are  given  only  to  reflect  the  real 
mutual  opinions  of  these  opposing  peoples.  It  may  be 
that  they  are  the  utterances  of  mere  temporary  irritation, 
which  will  pass  away,  as  French  and  German  antagonism 
have  so  largely  evaporated  with  the  years.  Indeed,  many 
far-seeing  men  think  that  just  this  happy  conclusion  will 
occur.  But  at  the  present  hour  the  war  itself  is  taken 
for  granted.  One  of  the  most  conservative  of  Japanese 
statesmen  said:  "I  admit  that  it  looks  like  an  appeal  to 
arms,  but  I  hope  and  believe  that  it  will  be  settled  peace- 
ably. The  immensely  increased  intercommunication  of 
nations,  the  telegraph,  the  interwoven  commercial  in- 
terests, all  conspire  to  aid  us  to  a  peaceful  settlement." 

Like  the  conservative  men  of  all  nations,  the  thought- 
ful statesmen  of  Japan  are  hoping  and  working  for  peace 
but  preparing  for  war.  "  I  admit  that  Russia  is  strength- 
ening herself  in  Manchuria  as  fast  as  she  can,"  said  one 
of  the  weightiest  minds  of  the  island-empire,  "and  that 
she  is  doing  it  with  ultimate  intentions  on  Korea  there 
cannot  be  the  sHghtest  doubt.  We  hope  that  the  public 
opinion  of  the  world  will  never  permit  further  Russian 
aggression,  but  we  are  preparing  as  fast  as  she  is.  In 
such  a  war  she  will  be  helpless,  because  we  command 
the  sea,  and  she  will  never  again  be  able  to  make  the 

130 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

triple  alliance  which  robbed  us  of  our  victory  over 
China." 

The  expression  of  Russian  public  men,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  even  more  pacific.  You  will  never  be  able  to 
get  a  Russian  civil  official  to  admit  the  possibility  of  war. 
"But,"  said  a  Russian  diplomat  travelling  towards  his 
station  in  the  Far  East,  "if  war  is  forced  on  us,  we  are 
ready  this  moment."  And  he  meant  it;  but,  from  what 
was  personally  known,  this  is  believed  to  be  an  over- 
statement. They  were  not  ready  "this  moment,"  and 
neither  was  Japan. ^ 

"Those  brown  fellows  must  strike  first,"  said  the  head 
of  a  Russian  civil  commission.  "We  don't  have  to  strike 
first ;  all  we  have  got  to  do  is  to  wait  and  strengthen  our- 
selves." 

"No,  there  will  be  no  war  between  Russia  and  Japan," 
declared  a  high  official  of  the  Manchurian  railway,  "be- 
cause it  is  perfectly  hopeless  for  Japan,  and  her  statesmen 
have  sense  enough  to  see  that.  Why,  suppose  they  actu- 
ally occupied  Korea  and  defeated  us  at  first ;  we  would 
swarm  back  upon  them  whenever  we  got  ready  and  sweep 
them  into  the  sea.  Besides,  out  of  all  this  turmoil  and 
confusion  we  will  reach  some  common  and  peaceful 
ground  at  last." 

But  behind  the  individual  expression  of  official  opinion 
on  both  sides  are  the  common,  emphatic,  clearly  defined 
views  of  the  masses — an  open  and  racial  antipathy  and 
feeling  of  certain  conflict. 

And  there  is  one  chord  which  is  struck  by  both  sides, 
and  struck  again,  and  still  again  played  by  each  side,  and 
that  chord  is  the  favor  of  America.  Each  side  insists 
that  the  interests  of  America  are  identical  with  its  own. 
"Under  existing  conditions,  it  seems  to  me  that  the 
friendship  of  America  should  be  ours ;  certainly  our  inter- 
ests are  the  same."    So  spoke  a  Japanese  statesman.     "If 

*  All  these  conversations  and  observations  occurred  in  1901. 

131 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

we  ever  do  have  a  conflict  with  Japan,"  said  a  much- 
travelled  and  highly  cultured  Russian,  "one  thing  is  clear 
to  all  the  world,  and  that  is  that  the  sympathy  of  America 
will  be  with  Russia." 

"We  shall  depend  upon  you  in  our  conflict  for  our  ex- 
istence and  for  the  integrity  of  the  East,"  earnestly  ex- 
claimed a  Japanese  public  man,  educated  in  the  univer- 
sities of  Europe.  "The  door  through  which  the  world 
enters  Asia  was  first  unlocked  by  an  American.  We  are 
neighbors,  and  nature  has  made  us  partners  to  resist  the 
aggression  of  the  Slav  in  the  Orient.  We  are  more  like  you 
than  we  are  like  any  other  people,  and  your  Mr.  Curtis,  in 
his  fine  book,  has  even  called  us  'the  Yankees  of  the  East.' 
And,  aside  from  sentiment,  the  sheer  question  of  com- 
merce is  enough  to  keep  you  with  us." 

Now  listen  to  the  counterpart  of  this  from  a  Russian 
source:  "There  is  only  one  nation  upon  whose  abiding 
friendship  Russia  counts,"  said  an  eminent  Russian,  "and 
that  nation  is  America.  Our  friendship  is  traditional  and 
has  never  been  broken.  You  had  our  sympathy  in  your 
War  for  Independence,  our  fleet  at  your  gates,  a  menace 
to  all  the  world,  during  your  Rebellion,  and  we  were  the 
only  people  of  the  world  who  did  not  sympathize  with  the 
South  in  that  mighty  effort  to  spHt  up  your  repubhc. 
We  sold  you  the  imperial  province  of  Alaska  for  a  song. 
Our  industries  are  not  developed,  and  while  they  are  de- 
veloping, it  is  from  you  that  we  shall  buy  more  and  more. 

"And  we  are  the  only  two  peoples  in  the  world  who  are 
alike — both  young,  both  expanding,  both  developing.  In 
all  the  fundamental  elements  of  comparison  we  are  the 
only  two  races  in  the  world  that  are  similar.  As  for  our 
institutions — at  bottom  there  is  more  resemblance  than 
dissimilarity,  and  at  the  top  the  very  antithesis  suggests 
unity.  We  are  different  sides  of  the  same  shield.  Autoc- 
racy on  one  side,  democracy  on  the  other — each  developed 
by  the  two  admittedly  coming  peoples  of  the  world. 

"Have  you  not  a  saying  in  your  country, '  We  will  never 

132 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

pull  down  the  flag?'  Well,  let  me  remind  you  that  our 
Emperor  Nicholas  said,  when  it  was  proposed  to  retreat 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Amur,  '  Where  the  Russian  flag  is 
planted  once,  there  it  shall  remain  forever.'" 

And  the  Emperor  Nicholas  did  say,  substantially,  just 
that,  and  just  that  is  the  common  thought  and  determi- 
nation of  those  many  tens  of  millions  of  units  of  human 
inertia  called  the  Russian  people.     An  illustration: 

The  boat  had  stopped  for  the  night  in  its  tiresome  prog- 
ress down  the  Amur,  and  the  peasants  and  soldiers 
swarmed  ashore.  For  some  reason  the  captain  decided  to 
change  the  location  of  the  boat  for  the  night,  and  ordered 
the  gang-plank  hauled  in.  All  hands  began  to  haul  it  in; 
a  Russian  common  soldier  had  taken  the  first  step  upon  it. 
"Back!  Back!"  shouted  the  boat  officer  (not  in  the  mil- 
itary service).  "Back!  Back!"  shouted  the  hands,  con- 
tinuing to  haul  in  the  gang-plank. 

"Never!  The  Russian  soldier  never  goes  backward!" 
shouted  the  white-bloused  private,  rushing  forward  on  the 
moving  plank,  and  escaping  by  a  hair's-breadth  from  fall- 
ing into  the  river. 

And  the  people  on  the  boat  and  the  peasants  on  shore 
applauded  his  somewhat  melodramatic  utterance. 

Melodramatic  it  was,  but  significant  it  was  also — signifi- 
cant of  the  giant  race  of  which  he  was  one.  "Where  the 
Russian  flag  is  planted,  there  it  remains  forever!"  speaks 
the  Czar  from  his  Winter  Palace.  "The  Russian  soldier 
never  goes  backward!"  shouts  the  obscure  private  on  the 
Amur.  And  between  them,  to  the  same  militant  purport, 
speaks  and  feels  and  believes  the  Russian  people.  This 
Russian  soldier  and  his  comrades  on  the  vagrant  Amur 
boat  were  good  examples.  Many  days  were  spent  in 
studying  them.  Observations  of  their  brothers  in  Nikolsk 
and  Khabaroff  and  throughout  Manchuria  revealed  inter- 
esting facts ;  and  nothing  can  be  more  interesting  in  fore- 
casting the  probable  Russo-Japanese  war  than  an  esti- 
mate of  the  men  who  must  do  the  fighting. 

^33 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

The  good-humor  of  the  Russian  soldier  is  apparently 
his  chief,  certainly  his  most  visible,  characteristic.  Song 
and  laugh  and  joke;  joke  and  laugh  and  song.  There  is  a 
playfulness  as  of  overgrown  boys.  Nothing  seems  to  impair 
or  discourage  this  wonderful  cheeriness.  The  writer  has 
seen  them,  drenched  to  the  skin,  lips  blue  with  cold,  laugh 
and  talk  in  the  greatest  good-humor,  their  teeth  chatter- 
ing while  they  spoke.  You  never  hear  a  complaint  from 
them. 

"I  should  say  that  the  difference  between  our  soldiers 
and  yours,"  the  Manchurian  colonel  above  quoted  added, 
"or  Germany's  or  England's  or  any  others,  is  that  when 
they  go  through  hardships  they  think  it  merely  their 
duty;  when  they  fight  they  think  it  nothing  more  than 
their  duty,  and  when  they  die  they  consider  it  quite  the 
proper  thing  because  it  is  their  duty.  Every  other  coun- 
try pays  its  soldiers  a  very  fair  sum  for  their  service — you 
Americans,  especially,  pay  very  high  wages.  We  pay  our 
soldiers  practically  nothing — two  or  three  dollars  a  year; 
but  they  are  taught  to  believe,  and  do  believe,  that  it  is 
their  duty — a  part  of  their  lives  which  they  owe  to  Russia, 
to  the  Czar,  and  to  the  King  of  kings  in  heaven.  We 
think  it  a  mistake  to  pay  soldiers.  It  puts  the  military 
service  of  the  country  on  a  mercenary  basis.  The  theory 
should  be  that  every  man  should  be  prepared  to  give  not 
only  three  or  four  years  of  service,  but  his  life,  if  need  be, 
to  his  country;  but  the  idea  of  pay  debases  the  spirit  of 
this  service." 

Associated  with  their  conception  of  service  as  a  duty, 
and  not  as  something  that  the  government  compels  them 
to  do,  or  as  something  for  which  they  are  paid,  is  the  ele- 
ment of  obedience  in  a  Russian  soldier.  He  obeys,  not  be- 
cause he  must,  but  because  it  is  his  nature.  There  is  an 
almost  worshipful  regard  for  ofhcers — an  unreasoning  be- 
lief in  them  which  is  childhke.  This  obedience  of  the 
Russian  soldier  is  not  the  obedience  of  discipline,  as  in  the 
case  of  Germany,  or  of  that  of  our  own  military  establish- 

134 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

ment,  or  that  of  any  other  nation.  It  has  its  springs  far 
down  in  the  very  nature  of  the  Slav  race  and  in  the  pe- 
culiar relationship  between  officer  and  men. 

Indeed,  the  whole  Russian  system  is  based  upon  the  idea 
of  father  and  son.  It  is  the  Czar  and  his  children  in  the 
empire,  the  governor  and  his  children  m  the  province, 
the  marshal  and  his  children  in  the  district,  the  patriarch 
and  his  children  in  the  family.  And  in  the  military 
establishment,  again  the  soldiers  of  the  Czar  are  the  chil- 
dren of  the  Czar,  the  soldiers  of  any  army  are  the  children 
of  the  general;  the  colonel  is  father  of  his  regiment,  the 
captain  of  his  company.  Thus  a  paternal  and  filial  re- 
lationship exists  which  you  may  see  nowhere  else  on  earth. 
A  German  officer  would  consider  military  discipline  se- 
riously violated  if  he  did  what,  to  the  Russian  officer,  is 
a  natural  method  of  insuring  discipline.  An  American 
soldier  submits  to  discipline  because,  on  the  whole,  he 
thinks  it  a  good  thing,  and  also  because  he  must;  a  Ger- 
man soldier,  almost  wholly  because  he  must;  but  the 
Russian  soldier  because  his  "father"  commands,  and  it 
is  his  filial  duty. 

One  night,  in  Trans-Baikal  Siberia,  the  strange,  weird 
notes  of  a  Russian  peasants'  song  came  through  the 
darkness.  (Nothing  can  describe  the  Russian  peasant 
and  soldier  songs — their  wildness,  their  mingled  sadness 
and  joy.  Towards  the  end  of  each  verse,  breaking  in  upon 
the  deeper  chorus,  a  high,  shrill  voice  takes  up  the  strain 
and  dominates  it  to  the  thrilling  end.)  A  Russian  officer 
of  very  high  birth  exclaimed,  "It  is  the  Cossacks  singing 
to  their  Mother  Volga." 

He  gladly  consented  to  go  over  to  their  company  and 
ask  them  to  sing  their  war-songs  and  translate  them  as 
they  sang.  They  sat  in  a  circle  in  the  darkness,  poor, 
mean,  with  little  to  eat  or  wear,  as  humble  a  cluster  of 
privates  as  you  can  find  among  Russia's  militant  millions. 
But  this  heir  of  one  of  the  noblest  names  in  Russia  ap- 
proached them  with  the  deference  and  courteous  bearing 

^3S 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

of  equality  that  he  would  have  used  in  a  St.  Petersburg 
ballroom.  He  greeted  them  pleasantly.  This  was  an 
American.  Did  they  feel  like  singing  more?  And  if  so, 
would  they  kindly  sing  some  of  their  Cossack  songs? 
And  they,  on  their  part,  as  the  child  might  to  the  father, 
responded.  And  as  they  sang  their  songs  about  the  Volga 
being  their  mother,  and  the  steppes  their  father,  and 
their  musket  their  brother,  and  their  knapsack  their  wife, 
the  camp-fire,  lighting  up  their  faces,  showed  this  son  of 
a  hundred  nobles  and  high  officer  in  the  Russian  army 
gazing  upon  them  with  the  kindly,  courteous,  even 
flattering  attention  that  you  might  expect  from  a  father 
looking  upon  children  who  were  pleasing  him.  And  when 
the  song  had  closed  he  did  not  abruptly  leave,  but  remain- 
ed awhile  in  familiar  conversation,  and  then  bade  them 
a  courteous  good-night. 

Upon  this  being  noted,  he  replied:  "Oh  yes!  that  is 
our  system;  that  is  out  civilization.  It  is  the  element  of 
affection  of  child  for  father  which  runs  through  our  whole 
social  and  military  organization.  It  is  a  source  of 
strength,  too,  which  no  other  nation  has.  All  the  rest  of 
you,  in  your  devotion  to  what  the  world  calls  manhood 
equality,  have  destroyed  those  fundamental  relationships 
which  nature  has  established.  With  you,  the  son  is  as 
good  as  the  father,  the  soldier  as  the  officer,  and  even 
God  is  hardly  recognized  as  a  superior. "  (You  will  often 
hear  flings  like  that  at  our  democratic  ideas.) 

Many  war-ships  of  the  Russian  fleet  were  lying  in  the 
harbor  of  Vladivostock.  While  there  the  admiral  caine 
on  board  (acquaintance  had  been  made  two  years  before 
on  his  ship  in  Nagasaki  Harbor).  The  captain,  com- 
mander, executive  officer,  the  whole  official  establish- 
ment of  the  ship  down  to  lieutenants,  came  into  the 
admiral's  room  quite  freely;  all  smoked  with  him,  all 
talked  with  him  together,  and  when  he  left  he  shook 
hands  with  impartiality  all  around.  And  that  is  some- 
thing you  can  see  on  the  war-ship  of  no  other  nation  except 

i;-;6 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

upon  a  Russian  battle-ship.  It  is  something  which, 
however  admirable  it  might  be  in  the  army,  every  Amer- 
ican or  English  navy  ofihcer  will  tell  you  is  impossible 
in  the  navy.^  It  is  cited  here  as  another  illustration  of 
the  relationship  between  Russian  officer  and  man,  which 
is  an  element  of  such  immense  importance  in  under- 
standing their  semi-military,  semi-industrial  operations. 

'  Numerous  stories  of  the  brutality  of  Russian  officers  to 
their  men  both  in  the  army  and  navy  may  be  heard;  and  some 
of  them  are  doubtless  true.  But  the  paternal  and  filial  spirit 
predominates.  Instances  of  common  soldiers  acting  as  body 
servants  to  officers  were  frequently  observed;  but  no  striking 
example  of  harshness  was  witnessed.  On  the  other  hand,  more 
than  once  common  soldiers  were  seen  in  familiar  and  even 
humorous  conversation  with  a  general. 

[Since  this  volume  went  to  the  printer  the  Russo-Japanese 
crisis  has  become  acute.  At  the  present  moment  it  appears  im- 
possible to  determine  whether  there  will  be  immediate  war  be- 
tween Japan  and  Russia.  The  author  dees  not  think  hostilities 
probable  at  the  present  time,  because  neither  power  is  yet  ready 
for  the  conflict  and  because  the  action  of  other  nations,  and  par- 
ticularly of  England,  is  not  yet  definitely  known.  It  is  more 
probable  that  the  present  negotiations  will  have  a  temporarily 
peaceful  conclusion,  Japan  agreeing  not  to  interfere  with  Russia 
in  Manchuria,  and  Russia  agreeing  not  to  interfere  with  Japan  in 
Korea.  It  is  possible  that  Russia  may  even  agree  to  evacuate 
Manchuria  at  some  future  day.  Any  "evacuaticn,"  however, 
will  be  temporary.  But  no  matter  what  agreement  is  reached 
between  the  governments  of  the  Czar  and  the  Mikado,  by  which 
war  is  put  off.  the  causes  for  it  will  remain  The  event  itself 
can  at  best  only  be  postponed,  unless,  indeed,  Russia  and  Japan 
should  agree  to  be  permanent  allies  in  all  Asiatic  operations; 
and  this  seems  at  the  present  time  an  unthinkable  proposition. 
But  anything  short  of  this  cannot,  from  the  very  nature  of  the 
situation,  be  more  than  a  makeshift,  the  pacific  results  of  which 
will  at  best  last  but  a  few  years.] 


XI 


THE  SOLDIER  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  ADVANCE  AND  THE  SOLDIER 
OF   JAPAN 

PERHAPS  the  finest  specimens  of  physical  manhood 
personally  observed  at  any  place  in  any  country 
were,  on  the  average,  the  Russian  Cossacks  and  the  Rus- 
sian common  soldiers  along  the  Amur  and  in  Manchuria. 
They  are  big  men  —  necks  thick,  shoulders  powerful, 
chests  deep,  legs  sturdy,  great  room  for  play  of  lung, 
great  stomach  capacity,  heavy-skulled,  ruddy-counte- 
nanced. Their  physical  vigor  instantly  attracts  your 
attention.  And  there  is  an  impression  of  hardness  about 
them — iron  men,  steel  men,  granite  men.  And  when, 
day  after  day,  you  note  that  their  food  is  principally  sour- 
cabbage  soup,  black  bread,  dried  fish,  and  weak  tea,  you 
have  discovered  two  elements  upon  which,  you  will  find, 
if  you  will  converse  with  educated  Russians,  the  Russian 
military  theorist  largely  counts  in  any  conflict  which  here- 
after may  occur  with  any  nation.  Physical  hardiness 
and  endurance  on  the  one  hand,  and  little  and  simple 
food,  easily  transported,  on  the  other  hand.  It  re- 
minds you  of  the  stories  you  read  of  the  Scotch  soldiers 
in  the  time  of  Bruce  carrying  many  days'  provisions 
of  oatmeal  in  a  little  pouch,  or  of  the  Swiss  soldiers, 
or,  indeed,  of  the  soldiers  of  every  country  who  first 
won  for  their  respective  lands  the  glory  of  military  tri- 
umph. 

"It  is  one  of  our  chief  points  of  excellence.  The  same 
thing  is  true  of  our  horses.  Now,  Germany  feeds  her 
soldiers  too  much ;  also,  Germany's  horses  are  too  richly 

138 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

fed.  In  war,  therefore,  if  the  German  army  should  be 
cut  off  from  supplies,  or  should  its  commissariat  for  any 
reason  fail,  their  forces  would  be  at  a  great  disadvantage 
compared  with  ours.  Our  horses  can  live  where  other 
horses  would  languish  and  die;  and,  as  you  see,  our 
soldiers  thrive  on  the  simplest  and  plainest  fare.  The 
Russian  soldier  can  live  on  the  country  in  any  part  of 
the  world,  and  that  is  something  no  other  soldier  in  the 
world  can  do,  not  even  the  Japanese."  So  reasoned  a 
Russian  officer. 

Every  Russian  military  man  puts  preponderating  em- 
phasis upon  the  Russian  soldier's  ability  to  endure.  Gen- 
eral Cierpitsky  personally  told  of  an  assault  which  he 
himself  led  during  the  Boxer  troubles,  near  Pekin,  at  the 
close  of  a  march  of  fifty  versts  (thirty-five  miles).  His 
troops  made  the  assault  with  but  five  minutes'  rest.  From 
another  source,  but  illustrating  the  same  point,  came  the 
following  story,  undoubtedly  exaggerated,  but  descriptive 
of  Russian  endurance  and  spirit.  It  is  related  that  a  body 
of  French  troops  were  to  make  the  charge  with  the  Rus- 
sians. The  Frenchmen  had  joined  Cierpitsky's  men  only 
fifteen  versts  from  the  point  of  attack.  Yet,  although 
the  Russians  had  marched  fifty  versts  and  the  French- 
men only  fifteen,  the  latter  refused  to  join  in  the  as- 
sault until  they  had  thoroughly  rested.  It  is  said  that 
the  Russian  commander,  raging,  bitterly  rebuked  the 
French  commander,  turned  on  his  heel,  and  ordered 
the  assault  by  the  Russian  column,  who  executed  it 
alone. 

Again,  on  another  occasion,  so  the  camp  tale  runs,  a 
body  of  Russian  infantry  and  English  cavalry  came  to  a 
stream  in  which  ice  was  beginning  to  form.  The  English 
cavalry  turned  back  rather  than  subject  their  horses  to 
the  cold;  but  the  Russians,  with  shouts  of  scorn  and  de- 
rision, plunged  bodily  into  the  waters  themselves  and 
waded  and  swam  across.  This  story  appeared  too  dra- 
matic to  be  true,  but  inquiry  in  two  different  and  inde- 

139 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

pendent  quarters  suggested  that  there  may  have  been 
some  foundation  for  it.^ 

I  have  myself  seen  Russians  go  for  two  days  practically 
without  food,  and  also  without  complaining. 

The  Russian  soldier's  ability  to  make  friends  with  the 
people  with  whom  he  mingles,  and  even  with  those  whom 
he  conquers,  is  one  of  his  striking  characteristics,  and  com- 
mon to  all  Russians.  The  Russian  soldiers  in  Tien-Tsin, 
on  the  way  to  Pekin,  and  in  the  Tartar  capital  itself,  were 
able  to  communicate  with  the  Chinaman  quite  as  much 
as  they  did  with  the  Germans  and  Americans,  or  even  the 
French.  A  credible  writer  tells  of  having  seen  a  Russian 
soldier,  recently  arrived  in  Manchuria,  attempting  to  ad- 
dress a  crowd  of  Chinamen  in  their  own  tongue,  and  mak- 
ing himself  understood.  Certain  it  is  that  the  Russian 
soldiers  and  the  Koreans  who  came  over  the  border  into 
Russian  territory  in  ever-increasing  numbers,  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1 90 1,  spoke  to  each  other  without  much  difficulty. 
The  Muscovite's  facility  for  language,  and  especially  his 

*  Lieutenant  F.  V.  Greene,  U.S.A.,  in  his  charming  sketches 
of  "Army  Life  in  Russia,"  relates  the  following  incident  which 
he  observed  in  the  Russo-Turkish  War  and  which  illustrates  the 
Russian  soldier's  hardiness,  his  readiness  to  endure  fatigue  and 
cold,  and  his  good-humor:  "We  were  up  before  daylight  the  next 
morning,  and  just  as  the  sun  arose — a  bright  morning  of  intensely 
bitter  cold — the  troops  which  had  come  up  during  the  night,  and 
slept  in  the  fields  on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  began  crossing 
the  stream.  As  they  had  to  fight  all  day  in  the  snow  it  was  very 
important  that  their  clothing  should  not  be  wet,  and  they  were 
therefore  ordered  to  strip  naked,  roll  their  clothes  in  a  bundle 
and  carry  them  on  their  heads.  As  they  came  out  of  the  icy 
river  they  were  as  red  as  boiled  lobsters,  but  made  merry  as  they 
squatted  about  in  the  snow  to  put  on  their  clothes.  They  then 
formed  and  marched  through  the  village,  where  the  general  saluted 
them  as  usual. 

"  '  Good-morning,  my  men.' 

"  '  Good-morning,  your  Highness.' 

"  '  Did  you  burn  your  feet  coming  over?' 

"'No,  indeed,  your  Highness!'  they  answered  in  shout,  as  a 
broad  grin  stole  over  their  good-natured  faces." 

140 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

aptitude  for  Oriental  tongues,  is  a  valuable  amalgam  with 
which  Russian  policy  knits  and  fuses  alien  peoples  into 
the  Slav  metal. 

So  we  see  that  Russia's  human  instrument  of  war  with 
Japan — to  wit,  the  Russian  common  soldier — is  an  ele- 
mentally vital  creature,  with  knotted  muscles,  and  strong 
legs,  and  hairy  breast,  and  doglike  obedience,  and  child- 
like faith  in  his  military  "  fathers  "  (his  officers),  a  religious 
feeling  so  profound  that  it  has  no  questionmg,  an  adora- 
tion of  God,  and  faith  in  his  sincere  if  crude  conception  of 
the  Word,  woven  into  the  texture  and  substance  of  his 
very  being.  I  have  never  observed  the  Turkish  soldier 
personally,  but  I  should  say  that  the  religious  faith  of  the 
Russian  soldier  is  of  the  same  quality  as  that  said  to  be 
characteristic  of  the  Turk,  with  Christ  substituted  for 
Mohammed  and  the  Bible  for  the  Koran. 

How  many  of  these  living  bayonets,  then,  has  Russia  on 
the  ground?  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Chino  -  Japanese 
war  she  had  scarcely  any.  At  the  beginning  of  the  Box- 
er troubles  she  was  still  deficient.  The  best  authorities 
estimate  that,  in  1900,  she  had  sixty  thousand  in  Man- 
churia. It  can  be  stated,  on  the  word  of  a  very  high  mil- 
itary authority  in  the  Far  East,  that  Russia  had,  in  Au- 
gust, 1901,  within  a  fortnight's  march  of  Korea,  not  less 
than  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men.  Personal  ob- 
servation suggests  that  this  estimate  was  not  extravagant. 
In  Nikolsk  alone  it  is  believed  that  there  were  no  less  than 
fifteen  thousand  troops  even  as  early  as  1901 ,  and  the  num- 
bers have  been  greatly  increased  since  then.  Vladivo- 
stock,  KhabarofE,  Port  Arthur  swarm  with  them.  Trans- 
Baikal  Siberia  is  full  of  them,  their  number  growing  visibly 
greater  as  the  Pacific  is  approached.  Manchuria  is  gar- 
risoned with  them;  and  every  boat  that  comes  down  the 
Amur  brings  from  three  to  fifteen  common  soldiers.  Otur 
boat  had  twelve. 

They  travelled  quite  unostentatiously,  mingling  and 
sleeping  with  the  peasants,  who  covered  the  lower  floor  of 

141 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  boat  as  closely  as  your  interlaced  fingers.  Other  trav- 
ellers when  questioned  recalled  the  same  phenomenon. 
It  is  not  said  that  there  is  any  design  in  the  inconspicuous 
transporting  of  this  steady  column  of  Russian  soldiery 
towards  the  Korean  frontier.  The  fact  is  noted.  It  may 
be  that  the  same  thing  was  occurring  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion; but  no  one  was  discovered  who  had  seen  it.  If  it  be 
true  that  Russia  is  thus  adding  to  her  military  strength, 
it  is  possible  for  her  to  have  two  hundred  thousand  troops 
within  striking  distance  of  Japan  by  the  present  time, 
without  any  one  knowing  it.  Should  war  be  declared 
within  a  year,  it  is  believed  that  Russia  will  be  found  to 
have  on  the  ground,  ready  for  instant  service,  a  quarter  of 
a  million  men.  "Of  course,"  remarked  a  Russian  officer, 
"we  can  just  keep  on  bringing  troops  there  or  any  place 
else.  It  costs  us  but  very  little,  and  our  soldiers  are  ab- 
solutely inexhaustible." 

You  can  know  how  true  this  is  when  you  recall  this  not- 
able fact :  Over  eight  hundred  thousand  young  men  reach 
military  age  every  year  in  Russia,  and  the  government  is 
able  to  avail  itself  of  scarely  more  than  two  hundred  thou- 
sand of  these  for  active  service.  Other  nations  may  have 
storehouses  of  coal  and  fleets  and  heavy  armaments,  but 
there  is  no  nation  of  modern  times  that  has  such  a  maga- 
zine of  human  vitality  to  draw  upon  as  has  the  Russia 
of  to-day. 

The  universal  feeling  in  the  Far  East  is  that  if  Japan 
ever  meant  to  go  to  war  with  Russia,  she  should  have 
struck  her  antagonist  four  years  ago. 

"Last  spring  was  her  final  day,"  said  an  earnest  friend 
ot  Japan  in  Shanghai  in  September,  igoi.  "Had  she 
struck  then  she  might  have  had  some  chance.  I  fear  that 
now  it  is  too  late." 

The  Japanese  themselves  admit  that  it  would  have  been 
much  better  had  they  remained  on  the  ground  which  they 
had  won  in  Manchuria,  thus  compelling  Russia  to  attempt 
their  ejection  by  force;  but,  although  Japan  had  right  and 

142 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

possession  and  the  opinion  of  the  world  on  her  side,  she 
could  not  do  this  because  she  was  overawed  and  out- 
matched by  the  allies,  and  because  she  was  temporarily 
exhausted.  For  the  latter  reason ,  she  has  not  been  able  to 
strike  since  then.  To  have  entered  upon  war  with  the  al- 
lies, or  even  with  Russia  alone,  immediately  after  her 
conflict  with  China,  would  have  meant  her  defeat.  Tired 
from  her  war  with  China,  and  with  scant  financial  re- 
sources remaining,  a  new  conflict  immediately  was  too 
large  an  undertaking.  Well-informed  men  say  that  war 
must  come  within  a  few  years — even  presently.  But  all 
any  one  can  hazard  as  to  time  is  mere  speculation.  What, 
then,  of  Japan's  preparedness,  and  especially  what  of  her 
soldiers? 

First  of  all,  they  are  little  men.  In  weight  and  strength 
and  all  the  elements  of  physical  preponderance,  the  Rus- 
sian might  almost  be  said  to  be  the  equal  of  two  Japanese. 
"But,"  said  a  Japanese  officer,  laughingly  admitting  this, 
"the  little  man  can  shoot  as  straight  as  the  big  man, 
and  the  big  man  affords  a  better  target." 

The  courage  of  the  Japanese  is  admitted  very  willingly, 
even  by  the  Russians  themselves.  "  Yes,  indeed,  they  will 
fight.  There  is  no  doubt  about  that,"  said  a  young  Rus- 
sian officer,  returning  from  the  Mukden  campaign  (a  man, 
by-the-way,  who,  at  twenty-nine,  had  won  a  distinguished 
decoration,  and  who  was  informed  in  the  minutest  de- 
tails of  the  strategy  of  every  one  of  Napoleon's  battles, 
of  Frederick  the  Great's  battles,  and  of  all  the  battles 
fought  by  Grant,  Sherman,  Sheridan,  Lee,  and  Jackson 
in  the  civil  war,  and  who  pronounced  Sheridan  the 
ablest  strategist  of  them  all). 

"I  gladly  admit  the  courage  of  the  Japanese,"  said  a 
Russian  general,  discussing  the  comparative  merits  of  the 
world's  soldiers  as  exhibited  at  Pekin  during  the  terrible 
months  of  1900.  Everywhere,  on  all  hands  and  by  all 
nations,  you  will  hear  the  praise  of  Japanese  gallantry 
sounded  high  and  loud,  even  by  their  worst  enemies,  and 

143 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

a  bookful  of  stories  can  be  picked  up  illustrative  of  their 
daring  and  even  of  their  chivalry. 

As  well  disciplined  troops  as  I  ever  have  seen  are  those 
of  the  Japanese  army.  Far  and  away  the  best-dressed, 
best-groomed,  best-appearing  soldiers  observed  in  Pekin 
and  Tien-Tsin  and  on  the  route  between,  in  1901,  were  the 
Japanese  soldiers  (and  the  "crack"  soldiers  of  all  the 
world  were  there).  It  was  a  pleasure  to  observe  the 
policing  of  their  quarters.  And  you  might  search  for 
days  to  hear  a  story  of  Japanese  brawling  and  not  be 
rewarded,  while  fights  with  fists  and  even  knives  between 
other  soldiers  were  daily  occurrences. 

Inspection  of  barracks  after  barracks  in  Japan  itself, 
made  when  they  were  not  expecting  visitors,  showed  the 
policing  of  the  quarters  to  be  almost  perfect.  If  the 
Russians  at  Nikolsk  were  drilling,  drilhng,  drilling,  the 
Japanese  in  Japan  are  doing  all  of  that,  and  then  again, 
in  addition  to  it,  still  drilling,  drilling,  drilling.  Their 
tactics  are  almost  wholly  German,  even  to  the  artificial 
and  exhausting  "goose  step"  on  parade.  Indeed,  the 
Japanese  army  is  a  perfect  machine,  built  on  the  German 
model,  but  perfected  at  minute  points  and  in  exquisite 
detail  with  the  peculiar  ability  of  the  Japanese  for  dimin- 
utive accuracy  and  completeness.  The  Japanese  army, 
regiment,  company,  is  "built  like  a  watch,"  and  each 
Japanese  soldier  is  a  part  of  this  machine,  like  a  screw 
or  spring  or  disk,  with  this  exception — every  soldier  is 
capable  of  being  transformed  into  another  part  of  this 
complex  yet  simple  mechanism. 

They  are  hardy  fellows,  too — not  apparently  of  a  high 
intelligence  as  revealed  in  physiognomy  or  cranial  devel- 
opment, but  with  suggestions  of  the  bull-terrier.  Of  one 
company,  for  example,  over  two-thirds  had  the  heavy 
jaw,  broad  at  the  jowls  and  protruding,  that  you  asso- 
ciate with  the  pugilist  or  the  bull-dog.  You  can  well  be- 
lieve the  tales  of  their  ferocious  courage.  But  it  is  not 
thought  that  they  have  the  endurance  of  their  Russian 

144 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

antagonists.  For  one  thing,  they  are  fed  more  than  the 
Russian  soldiers  are  fed.  Inspection  of  their  rations  for 
each  meal  was  a  source  of  surprise,  for  it  appeared  that 
they  eat  almost  as  much  as  the  American  soldier,  though, 
of  course,  not  of  so  heavy  and  nutritious  food.  But  their 
food  is  better  and  of  greater  quantity  than  the  food 
of  the  Russian  soldier.  For  this  reason  Russian  officers 
assert  that  the  Japanese  soldiers  are  not  so  efficient  in 
the  stress  of  bitter  campaigns. 

Unlike  the  Russians,  they  have  no  religious  services 
in  quarters,  and,  in  reality,  no  definite  religious  faith. 
The  Japanese  soldier  goes  into  battle  burning  with  the 
thought  of  dying  in  the  service  of  the  good  Mikado, 
dying  for  the  glory  of  the  flag  of  the  Crimson  Sun.  The 
Russian  soldier  goes  into  battle  with  the  little  metal  cross 
next  to  his  very  heart.  (Every  orthodox  Russian,  noble 
and  peasant,  sleeping  and  waking,  wears  around  his  neck 
and  on  his  breast,  next  to  the  flesh,  the  little  metal  cross.) 
He  goes  into  battle  believing  not  only  that  he  is  obeying 
his  commander,  not  only  that  he  is  serving  the  Czar,  but 
that  he  is  fighting  in  the  cause  of  Heaven  itself,  and  that 
when  he  falls  he  will  go  to  the  sure  rewards  of  a  loving 
Father,  in  whose  service  he  laid  down  his  earthly  life. 

Space  cannot  be  given  for  detailed  description  of  Japan- 
ese discipline.  Perhaps  their  method  of  desultory  firing, 
mingled  with  fixing  bayonets,  preparatory  to  a  charge, 
is  the  best  single  example  to  illuminate  the  whole  subject 
which  can  be  selected. 

Suppose,  then,  that  a  Japanese  regiment  is  to  charge 
an  enemy.  They  will  kneel  on  one  knee,  and  a  general 
and  continuous  fire  all  along  the  line  will  be  kept  up,  each 
man  firing  as  fast  as  he  can  carefully  aim,  and  quite  at 
will;  between  shots,  one  man  and  then  another,  but  not 
all  at  once,  quickly  draw  their  knifelike  bayonets  and  fix 
them  to  the  guns,  and  continue  firing.  When  all  the 
bayonets  are  fixed,  the  officers  spring  to  position  (the 
captains  in  front)  so  quickly  that  you  hardly  observe  it; 
lo  145 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  order  to  charge  is  shouted,  and  the  whole  Hne  springs 
forward,  first  on  a  slow  run,  but  quickening  as  they  near 
the  enemy,  and  bursting  into  a  wild,  high  yell  as  they 
close  upon  their  foe.  It  is  reasoned  that  by  this  method 
no  time  is  wasted;  the  enemy  do  not  know  that  a  charge 
is  to  be  made;  firing  is  continuous  to  the  very  moment  of 
onset;  and,  principally  and  far  above  all,  that  by  this 
continuous  firing,  mingled  with  the  fixing  of  baA^onets,  the 
soldier  is  gradually  worked  up  to  a  point  of  terrible  eager- 
ness, and  that  at  the  psychic  moment  the  human  engine 
of  death  is  released  upon  its  antagonist. 

The  impartial  observer  will  conclude  that,  though  the 
Russian  soldier  has  points  of  superiority  over  the  Japan- 
ese, nevertheless  the  Japanese  soldier,  man  for  man,  is 
more  nearly  a  match  for  his  Russian  antagonist  than 
is  generally  supposed. 

"We  can  mobilize  our  entire  army  of  two  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  men  in  thirty-six  hours,"  declared  one  of 
the  very  highest  military  authorities  of  Japan.  And 
there  is  no  doubt  of  the  truth  of  the  statement.  The 
Japanese  believe  that  they  can  land  an  army  corps  in 
Korea  in  less  than  three  days.  But  competent  European 
officers  think  this  impossible.  It  is  believed  by  the  most 
conservative  men  in  Japan  that  a  force  of  two  hundred 
thousand  men  can  be  transported  to  the  peninsula  or  to 
Manchuria  in  two  weeks,  and  a  line  of  provision  trans- 
ports established  and  defended.  Perhaps  this  is  not  so 
far  from  the  truth.  Very  moderate  opinion  is,  that  in 
three  weeks  Japan  could  have  every  man  in  her  active 
military  establishment  landed  at  any  point  she  pleased 
in  Manchuria  or  Korea,  and  a  line  of  commissary  trans- 
ports established  and  defended. 

In  the  coming  war,  therefore,  it  is  believed  that  Japan 
can  get  into  position  throughout  the  country  she  desires 
to  absorb,  and  that  it  would  then  be  for  Russia  to  oust 
her.  Anybody  will  understand  the  advantage  of  being  in 
position  and  intrenched.     When  the  conflict  comes,  the 

146 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Russian  force  and  the  Japanese  force  of  available,  active 
fighting -men  will  not  be  far  from  the  same.  Every- 
day that  Japan  delays,  Russia's  numbers,  of  course,  in- 
crease. 

In  this  conflict  the  chief — perhaps  determining — ele- 
ment will  be  the  respective  Russian  and  Japanese  fleets. 
The  Japanese  navy,  practically  all  of  which  is  at  home 
and  instantly  available  for  this  war,  is  one  of  the  best 
fighting  naval  organizations  in  the  world.  Indeed,  for  its 
size  it  is  perhaps  the  best-equipped  navy  of  any  nation. 
But  neither  is  the  Russian  navy  to  be  sneered  at.  Stead- 
ily, slowly,  almost  stealthily,  she  is  increasing  her  mari- 
time armament  in  the  Orient.  The  stories  told  about 
the  mismanagement  and  neglect  of  the  Russian  war-ships 
are  believed  to  be  erroneous,  and  this  belief  comes  from 
personal  observation.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the 
pet  and  pride  and  hope  of  the  Russian  nation  has  been 
her  navy  ever  since  the  time  that  Peter  the  Great  estab- 
lished it.  Russia  herself  makes  her  own  guns  for  her 
war-ships.  She  makes  most,  nearly  all,  of  her  war-ships 
herself.  They  are  well  done.  The  ships  were  found  in 
quite  as  good  condition  upon  unexpected  visits  to  them 
and  on  personal,  but,  of  course,  uninstructed  and  non- 
expert examination  of  all  parts  of  them,  as  English  and 
American  ships  were  found  under  like  circumstances ;  and 
no  opinion  is  here  ventured  as  to  the  respective  fighting 
powers  of  the  Japanese  and  the  Russian  ships  in  a  combat 
to  the  death. 

Finally  comes  the  estimate  of  comparative  resources, 
and  it  is  plain  that  the  subject  cannot  be  exhaustively 
handled  in  a  paragraph.  Only  a  broad,  general  outline 
can  be  stated. 

In  the  statement  of  that,  it  may  be  said  that  Russia 
has  vast  resources  unorganized  and  only  now  in  the  proc- 
ess of  modern  arrangement  by  Witte.  Russia  has  coal; 
Russia  has  iron;  Russia  has  timber;  Russia  has  admittedly 
the  third  richest,  and  many  believe  the  richest,  gold-mines 

147 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

in  the  world;  Russia  has  a  bread-producing  area  second 
only  to  that  of  the  United  States;  Rtissia's  manufact- 
urers are  making  strides  which,  for  the  Slav  race,  are 
astonishing,  but  which  for  a  highly  systemized  people  like 
the  Americans  or  Germans  would  be  considered  lethargic. 

On  the  other  hand,  Japan,  with  no  iron,  with  poor  coal, 
with  limited  fields,  with  a  crowded  population  jostling 
and  elbowing  one  another  into  the  sea,  has  as  highly  sys- 
temized industrial  organization  as  any  nation,  and  her 
manufacturing  enterprises  are  progressing  with  almost 
American  rapidity.  Her  sources  of  taxation  are  com- 
paratively limited  and  meagre,  but,  to  quote  on  this 
subject  one  of  the  coming  men  of  Japan,  "Organized  little 
counterbalances  unorganized  abundance." 

Japan,  however,  is  hampered  by  a  semi-democratic 
form  of  government,  which  most  enlightened  Japanese 
and  every  student  of  Japanese  development  now  admits 
to  be  a  disappointment.  The  representative  assembly 
of  Japan,  so  admirably  arranged  in  theory,  has  more  than 
once  proved  to  be  a  vexatious  interference  with  the  far- 
seeing  plans  of  the  empire's  real  statesmen.  The  floors 
of  the  Diet  have  frequently  been  made  rostrums  from 
which  demagogy  has  shouted  to  the  masses — a  stage  upon 
which  candidates  for  applause  have  outscreamed  one 
another  in  playing  the  role  of  parliamentary  conspicuity. 
This  prevents  Japan  from  making  adequate  preparation, 
although,  so  profound  is  the  national  feeling  that,  when 
the  time  arrives,  it  will  be  the  representative  assembly 
who  will  want  to  rush  into  war,  for  which  meanwhile 
they  refuse  to  prepare,  and  the  conservative  statesmen 
who  will  strive  to  prevent  war,  for  which  in  the  mean  time 
they  wish  to  prepare. 

Russia,  on  the  other  hand,  takes  her  measures  far  in 
advance.  In  addition  to  her  ordinary  sources  of  revenue, 
she  has  now  taken  over  the  monopoly  of  vodka.  The 
taxation  of  vodka  alone  is  said  to  have  largely  supported 
the  army  and  navy,  and,  now  that  the  government  has 

148 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

itself  become  the  distributer  of  intoxicants  for  one  hun- 
dred and  forty  millions  of  Russian  people,  it  will  add  to 
its  former  taxation  the  profits  of  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  dealers.  At  the  same  time,  the  people  will  be  taught 
moderation  in  drinking. 

Again,  for  example,  the  one  thing  consumed  by  m.an, 
woman,  and  child  in  Russia  is  tea — in  the  homes,  tea; 
on  the  streets,  tea;  in  the  trains,  tea;  in  the  camps,  tea; 
on  the  boats,  tea;  among  the  squalid  knots  of  ragged 
pilgrims,  tea.  Very  well,  says  Witte;  why  should  private 
dealers  profit  from  the  common  and  universal  necessities 
of  the  masses?  And  so  the  government  is  perfecting 
plans  for  taking  on  the  monopoly  of  tea.  This  will  be 
an  enormous  and  constantly  increasing  source  of  rev- 
enue. However,  it  is  not  yet  being  carried  into  prac- 
tice. 

Of  course,  as  was  pointed  out  by  the  Japanese  states- 
man, in  the  conversation  above  quoted,  there  is  the  possi- 
bility that  the  very  vastness  of  the  struggle  will  prevent  it. 
The  effects  of  such  a  war  would  be  so  far-reaching  and  en- 
during, it  may  involve  so  many  nations,  that  the  powers, 
for  very  fear,  may  agree  to  prevent  it.  We  have  here, 
repeated,  the  situation  so  often  presented  during  the 
nineteenth  century,  and  still  in  evidence,  of  the  dismem- 
berment of  Turkey,  or  its  absorption  by  Russia,  prevented 
by  the  rest  of  the  world.  And  the  judicial  thinker  must 
not  omit  the  important  factor  also  pointed  out  by  the 
Japanese  statesman  above  referred  to,  that  the  progress  of 
civilization,  as  manifested  in  steam  and  electricity,  and 
the  constant  weaving  together  of  the  advancing  forces 
of  the  world,  may  have  a  delaying  if  not  an  absolutely 
preventive  effect. 

But,  taking  all  of  these  into  account,  and  giving  them 
their  just  weight  in  balancing  the  forces  which  make  for 
war  and  the  forces  which  make  for  peace,  one  is  forced, 
however  much  against  his  will,  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
pacific  influences  may  be  too  weak  to  prevail.     Indeed,  it 

149 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

may  be  that  forces  far  greater  and  deeper  than  any  of 
these  pointed  out  are  precipitating  this  conflict,  and  that 
it  may  be  the  beginning  of  the  long-anticipated  struggle 
between  Occidental  civilization  on  the  one  hand  and 
Oriental  civilization  on  the  other  hand. 

Finally,  there  is  a  rare  possibility  that  Marquis  Ito 
(by  the  test  of  achievements  entitled  to  be  called  the 
first  constructive  living  statesman  of  the  world)  and 
Witte  (the  ablest  commercial  and  financial  mind  in 
Europe,  and  certainly  the  best  business-man  the  empire 
has  produced,  so  far  as  the  world  has  any  data  to  judge 
from) — it  is  possible  that  these  two  great,  conservative 
minds  may  prevent  the  inevitable,  avert  the  impending, 
and  answer  with  their  moderation  the  syllogism  of  nature 
itself,  whose  probable  conclusion  is,  as  pointed  out,  the 
first  great  war  of  the  twentieth  century. 

Witte  is  devoted  to  peace.  Ito  is  devoted  to  peace. 
Each  man  has  on  his  hands  that  noblest  of  tasks — the  de- 
veloping of  an  old  people  into  a  new  people  and  of  ancient 
conditions  into  modern  system.  And  war,  which  costs  so 
much  money — war,  which  wrecks  credit — war,  which  eats 
up  resources,  is  to  these  two  mighty  men  of  Europe  and 
Asia  their  mutual  nightmare.  They  will  avert  it  if 
they  can;  but  to  the  observer  who  traverses  the  ground, 
and  then,  from  afar,  as  from  a  high  peak,  surveys  con- 
ditions, it  looks  as  though  two  vast  avalanches,  moving 
towards  each  other  on  the  same  line,  were  steadily  gather- 
ing momentum,  and  that  the  two  giants'  shoulders,  braced 
against  them  in  attempting  to  hold  them  back,  will  not 
be  strong  enough  for  that  great  task — Herculean  though 
those  shoulders  are.  To  the  impartial  observer,  whose 
business  it  is  to  see  and  not  to  dream,  to  deduce  the  prob- 
able from  the  actual,  and  not  to  call  his  hopes  his  facts,  it 
would  appear  that  sooner  or  later  these  two  great  bodies 
must  meet. 

Meanwhile,  the  hopes  and  prayers  of  the  world  will  be 
with  the  master-minds  of  Russia  and  Japan — Witte  and 

ISO 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Ito.  But  if,  despite  their  wisdom  and  their  will,  war 
comes,  it  will  be  one  of  those  issues  of  fate  in  whose 
progress  and  endmg,  as  in  all  like  elemental  and  un- 
avoidable conflicts,  men  and  history  may  see  the  hand 
of  God. 


XII 


THE  RUSSIAN  ADVANCE  PARALLELED  BY  THE  GERMAN 
ADVANCE 

ONLY  two  powers  are  making  substantial  headway 
in  China,  as  evidenced  by  physical  accomplishments 
on  the  ground.  For  ten  years  none  but  these  two  na- 
tions has  accomplished  permanent  results  which  you  can 
see  with  your  eye,  upon  which  you  can  put  your  finger. 
The  first  of  these  powers  is  Russia,  a  suggestion  of  whose 
material  and  constructive  advance  has  been  inadequately 
given.  But  the  building  of  her  Manchurian  railroad  is  not 
the  hmit  of  her  activity.  When  that  enormous  terminus 
of  the  Siberian  road  is  completed  Russia  will  have  har- 
nessed Asia  to  her  chariot  with  traces  of  steel ;  but  to  make 
Asia  move,  to  subdue,  to  train,  to  guide  the  Orient  will  re- 
quire time,  patience,  and  ceaselessly  steady  effort. 

And  these  three  elements  are  the  very  ones  in  which 
Russian  character  is  richest.  Russia  knows  the  incom- 
parable effect  of  carefully  cultivated  public  opinion — the 
autocracy  of  precedent,  even  in  the  most  absolute  of  au- 
tocracies; therefore  her  diplomatic  and  consular  agencies, 
together  with  those  of  the  French,  are  fountains  of  subtle 
influence  all  over  the  Celestial  Empire.  She  knows  the 
importance  of  banking  institutions  as  fosterers  of  trade 
and  power  among  Eastern  peoples,  and,  therefore,  the 
Russo-Chinese  Bank  is  weaving  a  net-work  of  financial  in- 
fluence throughout  the  Far  East.  Starting  from  St. 
Petersburg,  this  golden  nerve  of  empire  stretches  across 
Siberia  with  a  ganglion  at  every  town;  spreads  over  Man- 
churia again  with  a  centre  at  Harbin,  one  at  Mukden,  at 

152 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Port  Arthur,  at  Dalni,at  New-Chwang;  enters  Pekin, where 
it  gathers  fresh  power  and  impetus  from  Mr.  Posdneff ,  the 
remarkable  head  of  the  Russo-Chinese  Bank  at  that  place; 
stretches  southward  again  to  Shanghai,  pausing  at  Che- 
foo  on  the  way;  crosses  the  Yellow  Sea,  and  runs  the  cir- 
cuit of  Japan,  with  headquarters  at  Yokohama;  doubles 
on  itself,  and  finally  ends  with  an  aggressive  agency  at 
Hong-Kong,  the  very  headquarters  of  England's  Oriental 
power  and  activity.  The  Russo-Chinese  Bank  deserves 
a  chapter  to  itself;  the  limits  of  this  chapter  permit  no 
adequate  analysis.  It  is  mentioned  here  only  in  the  sum- 
mary of  Russia's  Oriental  preparations.^ 

The  other  power  making  commercial  and  territorial 
progress  in  China  is  Germany.  Its  visible  activity  and 
apparent  results  are  superior,  at  the  present  moment,  even 
to  those  of  Russia.  Four  years  ago  the  writer  was  sur- 
prised and  startled  upon  observing,  on  a  careful  trip 
through  China,  the  seeming  predominance  everywhere  of 
German  commerce  as  manifested  in  immediate  activity. 
In  the  summer  of  1901  the  increase  in  the  externalization 
of  German  influence  would  not  have  been  believed  but  for 
actual  sight  and  hearing  and  the  testimony  of  the  physical 
senses — yes,  and  the  testimony  of  that  sum  of  physical 
senses,  the  witness  of  that  indefinable  psychic  suggestion 
vv^hich  we  in  America  express  by  saying  "the  drift  of 
things,"  or  "it  is  in  the  air";  for  all  over  China,  Germany 
is  "in  the  air." 

Attention  has  been  called  to  the  fact  that  at  Nikolsk 

^  The  Russo-Chinese  Bank  now  has  branches  at  the  following 
]jlaces :  Andijan,  Batoum,  Biisk,  Blagovcstchensk,  Bcdaibo, 
Bombay,  Bokhara,  Calcutta,  Chefoo,  Dalni,  Hailar,  Hakodate, 
Hankow,  Harbin,  Hong-Kong,  Irkutsk,  Kalgan,  Kachgar, 
Khabaroff,  Khokand,  Kiachta,  Kirin,  Koh6,  Krasnoiarsk, 
Kouantchendze,  Kouldja,  Moscow,  Mukden,  Nagasaki,  New- 
Chwang,  Nikolsk,  Ouliasoutai,  Ourga,  Paris,  Pekin,  Port 
Arthur,  Samarcande,  Shanghai,  Strctensk,  Tachkent,  Teline, 
Tien-Tsin,  Tchita,  Tchougoutchak,  Tsitsikar,  Verchneoudinsk, 
Vladivostock,  Werniy,  Yokohama,  Zeiskaia,  and  Pristan. 

^53 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  principal  ir.ercliants  of  that  Russian  commercial  and 
military  centre  were  Germans,  and  that  Germans  even 
supplied  the  builders  of  the  Manchurian  railroad  with 
provisions.  At  Port  Arthur  the  great  German  firm  of 
Kuntz  &  Albers  are  said  to  employ  a  score  of  young 
Germans  in  their  estabHshment.  In  Vladivostock  Kuntz 
&  Albers  have  enormous  headquarters,  and  there  is  not  a 
department  store  in  Washington  whose  building  sur- 
passes the  handsome  structure  which  this  German  firm 
has  in  Blagovestchensk,  Siberia. 

The  same  thing  is  true  of  China  itself.  In  Tien-Tsin 
perhaps  the  first  foreign  mercantile  house  —  certainly 
the  second — is  the  North  China  branch  of  the  great  firm 
of  Carlowitz  &  Company.  In  Canton,  at  the  other  end 
of  the  empire,  by  far  the  most  active,  though  possibly  not 
the  largest,  commercial  establishment  is  the  South  China 
branch  of  this  immense  trading  establishment.  In 
Shanghai,  the  clearing-house  of  the  whole  Celestial 
Empire,  German  activity  is  aggressive,  ommipresent, 
persistent. 

On  a  certain  day  in  the  late  summer  of  1901  more 
German  flags  were  counted  in  the  water-front  before 
the  bund  at  Shanghai  than  those  of  any  other  nation; 
and  that  was  a  spectacle  which,  only  five  years  ago,  an 
Englishman  would  have  assured  you  to  be  an  utter 
impossibility  under  any  circumstances  or  at  any  time. 
The  carrying  trade  of  the  Far  East  is  passing  into  Ger- 
man hands  with  a  rapidity  which  would  alarm  the 
former  English  monopolists  of  this  great  business  were 
it  not  for  the  strange  stupor  which  seems  to  have  seized 
their  minds  and  numbed  their  nerves.  It  is  less  than 
ten  years  ago — not  more  than  five  years  ago — since  the 
unrivalled  passenger  line  of  Eastern  waters  was  the 
English  Peninsular  and  Oriental  Company.  Nobody 
calls  it  unrivalled  to-day.  The  vessels  of  few  Oriental 
steamship  lines  equal  to-day  the  ships  of  the  North 
German  Lloyd's  Oriental  fleet. 

154 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

The  Yang-tse  River  might  as  well  be  a  narrow  estuary 
of  the  ocean,  so  wide,  so  deep,  so  navigable  for  ships  is  it 
for  almost  a  thousand  miles  into  the  heart  of  China.  It  is 
the  artery  of  commerce,  through  which  flows  the  blood  of 
foreign  trade  into  the  richest  and  most  thickly  populated 
portion  of  the  empire.  The  carrying  trade  upon  this 
river  was,  until  five  years  ago,  almost  exclusively  in  the 
hands  of  the  English.  To-day  the  Germans  are  rapidly 
overtaking  their  British  competitors  in  the  tonnage 
which  they  own  on  the  Yang-tse  River.  English  ship- 
owners are  selling  their  lines — their  German  competitors 
are  buying  them. 

The  above  is  only  an  index,  the  counting  of  a  few  items 
of  German  commercial  activity  in  China.  A  full  and  care- 
ful description  would  require  a  volume  in  itself;  but  an 
examination  of  the  causes,  which  are  few  and  fundamental, 
may  reasonably  be  given  within  the  limits  of  these  dis- 
cussions. Before  taking  them  up,  however,  let  us  notice 
Germany's  territorial,  diplomatic,  and  military  activity  on 
the  ground. 

Perhaps  at  no  spot  in  any  country  could  so  picturesque 
an  interior  have  been  seen  as  the  dining-room  of  the  prin- 
cipal hotel  at  Tien-Tsin,  in  the  late  summer  of  190 1.  It 
was  the  place  where  the  officers  of  the  European  powers 
assembled  for  their  evening  dinner,  and  for  their  smoke 
and  gossip  and  relaxation  on  the  verandas  afterwards. 
The  English  were  there,  of  course,  proud,  clean,  charming 
examples  of  that  incomparable  product — the  Anglo-Saxon 
gentleman.  The  French  were  there,  and  the  Italian  (and 
Italy  certainly  sent  the  ver}^  pick  and  flower  of  her  physi- 
cal manhood — some  of  the  Italian  officers  were  superb  to 
look  upon),  and  the  Austrian,  and  everybody  else.  But, 
over  all,  conspicuously  the  master  figure,  was  the  German. 
The  whole  atmosphere  of  Tien-Tsin  was  German.  One 
or  two  German  officers  had  brought  their  wives  with  them, 
beautiful,  blond,  vivacious  creatures.  Every  German 
man  and  woman  in  the  Orient  is  imperial  in  bearing,  man- 

155 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

ner,  and  purpose.  Their  veins  seem  to  be  filled  with  the 
winelike  blood  of  German  supremacy.  Every  officer, 
every  diplomat,  every  consul  is  the  German  Emperor  in 
miniature. 

"  I  tell  you  frankly,"  said  a  resident  of  Tien-Tsin,  and 
one  of  the  best-informed  foreigners  in  China — "I  tell  you 
frankly,  whatever  the  newspapers  may  say,  and  whatever 
the  diplomatic  phrases  may  be,  the  real,  substantial  pow- 
ers here  are  Germany  and  Russia.  The  German's  bearing 
of  insolent  superiority,  with  the  constant  reminder  that 
the  mailed  hand  is  back  of  every  demand,  impresses  the 
Chinaman  far  more  than  it  angers  him,  for  he  respects 
nothing  so  much  as  power." 

When  he  said  that  he  gave  the  key  which,  in  the  opin- 
ion of  German,  English,  and  Russian,  unlocks  the  se- 
crets of  the  Oriental  heart.  It  was  not  a  discovery.  It 
was  merely  saying  over  again  what  most  foreign  students 
of  Asiatic  peoples  have  said  since  the  very  beginning  of 
Oriental  investigation  by  modern  peoples. 

The  barracks  of  the  German  "legation  guard"  at  Pekin 
are  permanent  structures,  large,  numerous,  and  apparent- 
ly sufficient  for  several  thousand  men.  They  impress 
the  observer  as  garrison  buildings  more  than  as  the 
quarters  of  the  diplomatic  guard.  At  Shanghai,  in  the 
summer  of  1901,  German  officers  and  soldiers  were  con- 
spicuously in  evidence.  It  was  even  rumored  that 
ground  was  to  be  leased  by  Germany  for  permanent  bar- 
racks; but  this  has  not  yet  been  done,  if,  indeed,  it  was 
ever  contemplated.  Of  course,  the  focus  of  German 
military  and  constructive  activity  is  Kiaochou  and  the 
Shan-Tung  province  midway  between  Shanghai  and  Tien- 
Tsin.  The  story  of  this  feature  of  German  advance 
in  China  has  been  told  in  a  previous  chapter.  The 
miracle  wrought  in  the  brief  years  of  German  occupa- 
tion justifies,  in  the  opinion  of  many  informed  European 
residents  of  China,  the  bold  step  taken  by  Emperor 
William. 

156 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

No  one  in  Shan-Tung  province  ever  heard  of  a  period 
of  such  prosperity,  of  a  time  of  such  good  wages  in  that 
vicinity,  as  the  inhabitants  of  Kiaochou  and  the  sur- 
rounding country  have  enjoyed  since  the  German  came 
among  them.  For  he  came,  not  with  his  musket  alone,  not 
equipped  with  bayonet,  sword,  and  cannon  only,  but,  as 
with  the  Russian  in  Manchuria,  he  came  with  spade  and 
adze  and  plane  and  saw,  and  all  the  building  implements 
of  peace.  He  has  promised  himself  that  he  will  reproduce 
England's  miracles  at  Hong-Kong  in  Germany's  miracle 
at  Kiaochou.  (In  less  than  fifty  years  a  barren  rock, 
rising  from  the  water,  with  a  few  huts  of  starving  Chinese 
fishermen,  clinging  like  crabs  to  its  base,  has  been  trans- 
formed into  one  of  the  greatest  ports  and  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  cities  in  the  world.  Such  has  been  the  English- 
man's work  in  Hong-Kong;  and  be  it  remembered,  too, 
that  when  the  work  began,  and  while  it  was  in  progress, 
it  was  denotmced  by  English  statesmen  in  Parliament, 
and  its  failure  predicted  by  economists  of  almost  every 
other  nation.) 

In  her  Kiaochou  concessions  Germany  has  erected  mod- 
em buildings,  modern  storehouses,  modern  everything. 
Perhaps  the  best  hotel  (but  tv/o)  in  the  Orient,  the  Prince 
Heinrich  Hotel,  stands  where  filthy  hovels,  made  of  a  paste 
of  disease  and  mud,  housed  wretched  Chinamen,  less  than 
eight  years  ago.  The  railroad  runs  around  the  Bay  of 
Kiaochou  itself.  The  sandy  hills  are  being  reclaimed  with 
forests  planted  by  the  hands  of  scientific  foresters  from 
the  Fatherland.  A  work  of  beauty,  of  cleanliness,  of 
system,  of  industry  is  being  wrought  by  the  determined 
Teuton  at  this  forbidding  and  unwelcome  gateway  to  a 
province  whose  twenty  millions  of  inhabitants  are  yet 
to  be  told  of  the  great  world  outside,  and  yet  to  be  brought 
into  human,  civilizing,  saving  contact  with  their  brother 
human  beings.  Meanwhile,  slowly,  and  yet  quite  as  rap- 
idly as  the  yellow  hands  can  do  the  work,  the  iron  and 
steel  nef  ves  of  the  railway  creep  into  the  interior  txrv^ards 

157 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  mountains,  where,  it  is  believed  by  the  German  ir- 
vestors,  coal  and  iron  and  other  minerals  await  the  hand 
of  enterprise  to  make  these  cliffs  and  hills  of  poverty  a 
second  Pennsylvania.  And  with  the  railroad  goes  the 
German  soldier.  Any  interference  with  a  bolt,  the  loosen- 
ing of  a  plate  that  fastens  rail  to  rail,  the  undermining  of 
a  single  tie,  means  punishment,  and  that,  thinks  the 
German,  is  something  the  Chinaman  understands.  And 
so  it  is  that,  with  the  progress  of  this  highway  of  com- 
merce and  civilization,  order  goes,  and  system  and  peace. 

"The  German  people  will  soon  sicken  and  tire  of  this 
disgusting  enterprise.  Think  of  the  millions  they  have 
spent,  think  of  the  millions  they  must  invest,  and  think 
of  the  trifling  returns!"  So  spoke  an  English  critic  of 
the  German  enterprise  in  Shan-Tung. 

When  this  was  mentioned  to  a  vigorous  German  mer- 
chant in  Tien-Tsin  he  laughed  his  great,  hearty,  vital, 
German  laugh,  and  said:  "What  nonsense!  A  factory 
has  to  establish  its  plant  before  it  can  make  any  goods, 
has  it  not?  It  must  send  out  its  advertisements  before 
it  can  get  others  to  buy  its  goods,  must  it  not?  And 
from  the  time  of  its  establishment  to  the  time  the  profits 
begin  to  come  is  always  a  long  period.  Well,  Germany  is 
establishing  her  plant  in  the  Orient.  Take  the  railroad 
in  Shan -Tung.  I  am  a  merchant.  I  do  not  expect  always 
to  stay  here.  I  am  here  to  make  money  myself.  Ah,  yes, 
and  to  extend  German  trade  wherever  I  can,  too,  I  admit. 
Well,  with  this  purely  commercial  end  in  view,  I  am  in- 
vesting my  money  in  the  Shan-Tung  railroad.  I  am  in- 
vesting it  because,  after  careful  examination,  I  am  con- 
fident of  profitable  returns ;  and  I  shall  stay  right  with  it 
till  profitable  returns  come.  I  shall  help  them  to  come. 
All  Germans  will  help  them  to  come.  The  German  gov- 
ernment will  help  them  to  come." 

This  conversation  occurred  at  six  o'clock  in  the  even- 
ing. A  visit  at  five  o'clock  to  the  first  English  commercial 
ofhce  of  Tien-Tsin  found  the  ofhce  shut,  clerks  and  man- 

158 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

agers  gone  for  the  day.  But  the  German  commercial 
house  was  not  shut ;  the  German  clerks  had  not  departed 
for  the  day.  They  were  at  their  desks;  they  were  about 
the  "go-downs"  (warehouses),  and  the  manager  of  the 
great  business,  collarless,  in  shirt  -  sleeves,  vast  and 
brawny,  a  very  riot  of  masculinity,  sat,  working  away, 
with  sweaty  brow  and  moist  face,  -in  his  little  office. 

"Yes,  I  think  it,  perhaps,  is  one  secret  of  our  success  in 
the  Orient,"  said  he;  "we  never  cease  to  work.  The 
Englishman  must  have  his  time  for  tennis.  You  must 
not  push  him  too  hard  during  business  hours,  either. 
He  must  have  his  relaxation  in  the  evening.  He  must 
drink  at  his  club.  He  must  spend  his  social  hours  in 
pleasant  converse  with  the  ladies.  None  of  these  for  us 
Germans  out  here  in  the  Far  East.  We  are  a  humbler 
race.  We  are  here  for  work.  That  is  the  first  thing  we 
are  here  for;  and  the  second,  third,  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth 
thing  that  we  are  here  for  is  work  also." 

Two  years  before,  at  Canton,  an  English  and  American 
house,  the  successor  of  the  famous  Russell  &  Co.  (the 
American  "merchant  princes"  of  the  Far  East  fifty  years 
ago)  closed  at  four  o'clock.  A  pleasant  excursion  on 
the  river  was  taken  until  about  the  hour  of  six,  when  the 
foreign  club  was  visited.  Foreigners  of  every  national- 
ity were  at  the  club,  drinking  as  only  Europeans  in  the 
Orient  drink — foreigners,  that  is,  except  Germans;  not  a 
German  was  present.  But  the  Canton  branch  of  that 
immense  German  company,  Carlowitz  &  Co.,  then  oc- 
cupied the  building  next  to  the  club.  Every  window  was 
lighted  up,  and  when  the  club  was  left,  a  half-hour  later, 
at  every  window  was  seen  a  German  clerk  in  shirt-sleeves, 
bending  over  his  desk,  writing,  figuring,  casting  up  ac- 
counts, as  though  that  was  the  last  day  before  judgment. 
"Seest  thou  a  man  diligent  in  business?  he  shall  stand 
before  kings."  This  and  other  such  quotations  crowded 
through  the  mind,  and  the  history-old  explanation  of 
failure  and  success  was  plain. 

159 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

"Oh  yes,  we  sell  other  goods  than  German  goods,  of 
course.  We  sell  any  goods  of  any  nationality.  We  our- 
selves are  the  agents  in  China  for  Armstrong  &  Co.  (the 
great  English  manufacturers) ;  we  are  the  agents  of  many 
English  firms.  We  are  agents  for  some  Amicrican  lines 
of  goods.  If  we  cannot  sell  German  goods,  as  we  prefer 
to  do,  we  will  sell  any  goods  we  can.  Ultimately  it  is 
good  for  Germany  to  have  American  goods  or  English 
goods  or  any  other  kind  of  goods  pass  through  German 
hands.  With  us  individual  trade  and  individual  profit 
are  the  main  thing.  The  trade  of  the  German  Empire  is 
a  secondary  thing.  But  we  do  not  neglect  it,  mind  you. 
A  difference  between  us  and  the  English  and  French,  and 
also  the  American,  is  that  they  are  each  merely  looking 
out  for  their  own  individual,  selfish  interests,  without  the 
slightest  thought  of  whether  or  no  the  trade  of  America 
or  England  or  France  is  adversely  affected.  Well,  we  are 
not.  Though  we  are  here  for  individual  gain  and  indi- 
vidual profit,  the  extension  of  German  commerce  and  the 
trade  of  the  empire  is  a  real  and  living  consideration  with 
us  also.  The  government  helps  us  and  we  help  the  govern- 
ment."    So  spoke  a  German  Oriental  merchant. 

And  the  government  is  helping.  The  German  steam- 
ship lines  to  the  Orient  are  subsidized  h^SLvily.  It  is  said, 
and  upon  sufficient  authority  to  warrant  belief,  that  even 
the  German  coastwise  and  river  lines  in  China  receive 
government  aid.  A  line  is  maintained  between  Shang- 
hai and  Tien-Tsin  by  the  help  of  the  German  government. 
All  ships  of  this  line  stop  at  Kiaochou,  and  a  weekly 
round-trip  service  is  maintained  between  that  German 
colony  and  Shanghai.  These  ships  are  quite  as  good  as 
any  engaged  in  Oriental  coastwise  trade. 

Again,  the  feeling  has  been  created  in  the  Orient  that 
the  official  authorities  of  Germany  may  be  relied  on,  by 
personal  effort  and  every  other  possible  means,  to  aid 
German  merchants  in  any  piece  of  business  they  may 
have  on  hand.     Every  German  merchant,  contractor,  or 

i6o 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

promoter  feels  free  to  call  for  the  active  and  energetic 
assistance  of  all  German  consuls;  and  the  energy  and 
eagerness  of  the  German  consular  force  compel  the  ad- 
miration of  all  observers.  It  is  as  aggressive  as  the 
American  consular  service,  with  the  additional  advan- 
tage of  special  training. 

Germany,  too,  is  ingenious  and  insistent  in  creating 
an  impression  on  the  Oriental  mind  that  she  is  the  world's 
superior  power.  Wherever  there  is  an  excuse  for  the 
display  of  military  force,  German  soldiery  is  seen.  The 
writer  never  visited,  on  two  trips  to  China,  a  single  Chi- 
nese port  in  which  one  or  more  German  war-ships  were 
not  found.  The  German  military  element  was  so  pre- 
dominant in  Shanghai,  in  the  summer  of  1901,  that  a 
casual  and  uninstructed  traveller  might  have  been  ex- 
cused for  thinking  it  a  German  colony.  No  one  who 
knows  the  peculiar  practical  quality  of  the  German  mind 
will  believe  for  an  instant  that  all  of  this  is  for  mere  show. 
It  is  the  working  out  of  a  carefully  evolved  theory  about 
China  and  its  inhabitants,  and  Orientals  in  general. 

For,  with  the  same  patience  with  which  their  scientists 
have  evolved  working  theories  in  German  industry,  with 
the  same  stolid  patience  with  which  they  have  developed 
and  put  into  practice  theories  of  navigation,  the  German 
has  developed  his  theories  of  the  Oriental  mind  and 
character,  and  upon  them  bases  his  treatment  of  Oriental 
peoples  and  conditions.  In  a  word,  that  theory  is  that 
the  only  two  things  which  the  Oriental  mind  understands 
are  a  plain  demand  and  overwhelming  force.  The  Ger- 
man does  not  believe  that  the  Chinaman  is  grateful  for 
special  favors  shown  him.  The  German  theory  is  that 
the  strong  hand  is  the  only  thing  an  Asiatic  respects. 
Therefore,  everywhere  the  German  bayonet,  everywhere 
the  German  uniform,  and  everywhere  German  ships  of 
war;  and  now  there  is  the  beginning  of  another  "every- 
where," and  that  "  everywhere  "  is  German  barracks. 

How  does  all  this  affect  German  trade?  (The  writer 
II  161 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

expressly  disclaims  the  expression  of  opinion  here  as  to 
the  soundness  or  otherv/ise  of  the  German  theory.  This 
is  a  mere  record  of  facts.)  Alongside  of  the  military 
omnipresence  just  noticed  is  a  growth  of  German  trade 
in  the  East  quite  unequalled  in  its  rapidity.  In  Hong- 
Kong  the  most  active  and,  with  one  exception,  the  largest 
commercial  houses  are  German.  German  clocks  are 
found  in  Chinamen's  shops,  German  buttons,  German 
knives.  In  Shanghai  there  are  thirty-one  German  firms, 
some  of  which,  like  Arnold,  Karberg  &  Co.,  and  Carlo- 
witz  &  Co.,  are  immense  establishments,  with  branches 
at  every  treaty  port  in  the  empire. 

Though  the  report  and  returns  of  trade  issued  by  the 
China  Imperial  Maritime  Customs  show  the  great  bulk 
of  trade  at  this  central  port  to  be  still  English,  there  is, 
nevertheless,  a  falling  off  of  English  and  a  rapid  advance 
of  German  importations.  And  it  is  claimed  that  the 
reports  are  not  accurate.  An  estimate  was  examined 
from  a  supposedly  reliable  source,  which  had  been  secretly 
made,  and  which  showed  eighty  per  cent,  in  value  of  the 
foreign  goods  actually  carried  on  all  boats  upon  the 
Yang-tse  River  to  be  German.  Reliable  as  the  source 
of  information  was,  however,  this  estimate  is  undoubtedly 
a  magnified  exaggeration.  But  the  striking  increase  of 
German  commerce  on  every  hand  is  admitted. 

"But  does  not  this  constant  military  menace  of  Ger- 
many interfere  with  her  trade?  Does  it  not  anger  the 
Chinaman?  Is  it  not  natural  that  this  people  should  buy 
of  those  they  like  rather  than  of  those  they  hate?"  were 
questions  asked  of  a  leading  American  merchant  in  China, 
and  one  of  the  best -informed  men  in  the  empire. 

"Naturally  one  would  think  so,"  he  replied,  "but  it  is 
not  true.  Chinamen  come  to  us  ar^d  abuse  the  German 
with  words,  but  go  to  him  and  buy  his  goods.  So  far 
from  decreasing  German  trade,  this  military  reputation, 
which  they  are  working  so  hard  for,  is  the  best  advertise- 
ment they  could  have  with  Chinese  customers." 

162 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

And  this  is  what  another  American  said  in  Tien-Tsin: 
"  The  patting  of  the  Chinaman  on  the  back  does  not  win 
his  favor.  The  Chinaman  hkes  to  trade  with  the  'big 
man,'  whoever  he  is.  And  to  him  the  '  big  man'  is  the  man 
who  has  the  most  power.  Whether  this  is  correct  or  not, 
you  can  observe  for  yourself  the  progress  Germany  is 
making." 

A  German  commercial  authority  in  Shanghai,  speaking 
on  this  very  point,  said:  "The  German  flag  is  coming  to 
be  a  commercial  asset  to  every  one  of  us  Germans  who 
does  business  in  the  Orient."  (Precisely  what  Cecil 
Rhodes  said  about  the  British  flag  in  South  Africa.) 
"  Look  at  that  water-front  and  tell  me  what  flag  is  most 
numerous.  The  German.  What  soldiers  do  you  see 
most  of  on  the  streets  ?  German.  What  officers  the  most 
conspicuous  on  the  bund  last  evening?  The  German. 
Well,  I  am  a  merchant,  and  look  at  this  thing  purely  from 
the  point  of  view  of  dollars  and  cents;  but  all  of  that  is  so 
valuable  to  me  that  I  should  be  willing  to  pay  my  propor- 
tionate share  to  have  it  continue  and  increase.  We  are 
respected  now;  formerly  we  were  not.  Twelve  years  ago 
the  word  German  was  a  term  of  reproach ;  to-day  it  is  a 
term  of  respect.  Every  place  you  hear  the  word  Ger- 
man, German,  German.  We  have  created  the  peculiar 
condition  of  mind  which  your  great  American  department 
stores  succeed  in  creating  when  everybody  gets  to  talking 
about  them,  everybody  gets  to  going  to  them.  However 
wrong  our  views  may  be  in  the  abstract,  you  see  for  your- 
self that  they  work  very  well." 

Another  commercial  German  of  substance  and  informa- 
tion, located  at  a  certain  treaty  port,  made  a  statement  of 
German  intention  concerning  the  rich  trading  district  of 
the  Yang-tse  Valley  which  confirmed  a  general  and  grow- 
ing suspicion  that,  until  now,  has  hardly  been  breathed 
louder  than  in  a  whisper.  "So  you  think  China  will  be 
partitioned?"  was  asked. 

"Will  be!     Why,  it  is  being  partitioned.     The  division 

163 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

is  actually  going  on.  When  tens  of  millions  of  dollars  are 
being  expended  in  railroad  properties,  and  the  right  to 
work  mining  resources  as  an  incident  thereto,  is  conceded 
— as  is  universally  the  case — the  power  creating  these  im- 
provements becomes  a  dominant  influence  in  that  prov- 
ince. It  is  immaterial  whether  boundaries  are  actually 
staked  out  or  not,  or  that  the  little  flag  of  the  controlling 
power  is  stuck  to  each  surveying  stake.  It  is  of  no  conse- 
quence what  terms  are  employed.     The  fact  is  the  thing." 

"I  suppose,  then,  that  you  mean  that  Russia  will  ulti- 
mately have  Manchuria?" 

"Yes." 

"That  Germany  will  have  Shan-Tung?" 

"Yes." 

"That  perhaps  Russia  and  Germany  will  divide  Chihli?" 
(Pekin  and  Tien-Tsin  are  located  in  this  province.) 

"Yes." 

"That  England  will  have  the  Yang-tse  Valley?" 

With  flashing  eyes,  shoulders  suddenly  thrown  back,  he 
smote  his  desk  with  his  clinched  fist,  and  almost  shouted: 
"Never!  Never!  German  interests  in  the  Yang-tse  are 
already  too  great  for  it  ever  to  fall  within  the  sphere  of  any 
other  nation's  exclusive  influence.  No,  the  Yang-tse 
Valley  is  as  much  the  sphere  of  Germany  as  it  is  of 
England." 

References  are  frequently  made  by  German  merchants 
in  the  Orient  to  the  presence  of  German  soldiers  in  China, 
and  especially  German  ships  of  war  in  Chinese  waters. 
They  are  worth  noting  merely  to  show  the  prevailing 
thought  and  feeling  of  German  business  men  in  the  Orient 
as  to  the  commercial  value  of  military  and  naval  activities. 
Indeed,  no  one  can  breathe  the  atmosphere  of  the  Far 
East  very  long  without  becoming  impressed  with  German 
aggressiveness  everywhere,  even  in  the  Yang-tse  Valley. 
And  yet  the  Yang-tse  Valley  has  been  thought  to  be  se- 
curely English.  England  and  Russia  have  actually  agreed, 
the  first  not  to  interfere  with  any  present  or  future  Russian 

164 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

railway  enterprise  north  of  the  Great  Wall,  and  the  latter, 
in  like  manner,  not  to  interfere  with  any  present  or  future 
English  railway  enterprise  in  the  Yang-tse  Valley.^  But 
it  is  thought  that  Germany  will  never  permit  this  vast  and 
commercially  opulent  region  to  become  exclusively  Eng- 
lish for  purposes  of  commerce;  and  the  activities  of  the 
Russian  in  Hankow,  on  the  Yang-tse  River,  eight  hundred 
miles  from  the  ocean  directly  into  the  heart  of  China,  sug- 
gests the  belief  that  Russia  will  not  either. 

These  two  circumstances  have  their  bright  side,  because 
they  are  substantial,  militant,  fighting  guarantees,  for  the 
present  at  least,  that  the  open  door  in  China  is  to  be  kept 
open.  That  is  to  say,  the  door  is  kept  ajar  by  the  jealous- 
ies and  conflicting  interests  of  the  partitioning  powers,  and 
not  by  their  agreement.  Could  this  be  overcome,  the  par- 
tition, which  appears  to  be  already  proceeding,  might  cul- 
minate at  a  comparatively  early  day.  It  might  even  be 
accomplished  in  twenty -five  years — yes,  in  ten  years,  or 
even  less.  Manchuria  is  already  Russian,  if  the  Czar 
wishes  it.  Shan-Tung  is  already  Germany's  "sphere  of  in- 
fluence," and  is  coming  more  and  more  each  day  under 
the  physical  control  of  the  Kaiser.  That  portion  of  China 
opposite  the  Japanese  island  of  Formosa  has  been  "  staked 
out"  as  the  territory  of  Japanese  predominant  influence, 
If  the  Yang-tse  Valley  were  conceded  to  England,  little 
more  would  be  left  to  do  in  accomplishing  the  partition 
of  China. 

Freedom  of  trade  of  other  nations  with  German,  Rus- 
sian, Japanese,  or  English  provinces  would  then  become 
matters  of  separate  agreement  with  the  respective  con- 
trolling powers.  It  may  be  that  Germany,  having  spent 
millions  of  dollars  to  create  conditions  of  commerce  in  a 
populous  territory,  may  refuse  to  throw  that  commerce 
open  equally  to  other  nations,  which  have  not  expended  a 

1  This  Russian  and  English  agreement  is  given  in  full  in  the 
appendix. 

165 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

cent,  upon  the  same  terms  as  herself.  There  is  nothing  in 
the  history  of  Russia  to  show  that,  after  the  expenditure  of 
hundreds  of  milHons  of  dollars  in  creating  the  possibilities 
of  modern  commerce,  she  will  then  yield  that  commerce  to 
competitors  who  are  better  equipped  commercially.  Their 
present  declarations  in  favor  of  the  "open  door"  are  borne 
in  mind;  but  we  are  now  considering  ultimate  possibilities. 

The  motives  and  purposes  of  nations  are  to  be  observed 
from  conditions  and  not  from  traditions.  Therefore, 
those  who  expect  England  to  continue  her  colonial  policy 
of  the  free  and  equal  access  of  all  the  world  to  those  re- 
gions which  her  energy,  money,  and  valor  have  opened  to 
the  world's  commerce  are  hardly  warranted  in  such  opin- 
ion. Why  was  it  that  England  said,  "Where  my  flag  is 
planted  trade  is  free"?  Why  was  it  that  she  insisted 
upon  all  the  treaty  ports  of  China  being  open  to  every 
other  nation  on  the  same  terms  as  herself?  What  was 
the  reason  for  that  generous,  but  also  statesman-like  pol- 
icy? Admitting  that  many  English  statesmen  champion- 
ing this  noble  proposition  were  inspired  by  humanitarian 
reasons,  the  real  reason  must  be  found  in  very  practical 
commercial  considerations. 

For  a  long  time — indeed,  up  to  twenty  years  ago — 
England  was  the  workshop  of  the  world.  She  made  the 
world's  goods.  There  was  no  other  nation  which  could 
compete  with  her.  Therefore,  it  was  to  her  interest  to 
champion  free  ports  and  open  doors,  because  in  such  ports 
and  upon  such  apparently  equal  terms  with  the  rest  of  the 
world  she  was,  in  effect,  beyond  competition.  Nobody 
could  make  goods  as  cheaply  as  she  could.  Indeed,  com- 
paratively speaking,  nobody  could  make  goods  at  all  for 
export  except  herself.  On  the  other  hand,  her  one  need 
was  raw  material ;  and  so,  from  the  two  elements — of  un- 
surpassed facility  for  manufacturing,  rendering  her  un- 
rivalled in  the  field  of  commercial  progress,  and  her  want 
of  and  necessity  for  raw  materials  —  was  compounded 
her  policy  of  the  open  door  and  free  ports. 

i66 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

But  now  these  elements  have  disappeared.  Conditions 
have  changed.  The  inventive  genius  of  Americans,  which 
produce  every  day  miracles  of  mechanism;  the  intense 
nervous  activity  of  the  American  working-man ;  his  acute 
and  comprehensive  intelligence;  the  marvellous  combin- 
ing and  organizing  ability  of  American  capitalists;  the 
vast  resources  of  American  farms  and  mines  and  mills, 
compared  with  which  those  of  England  are  very  moderate 
indeed — all  these,  and  many  other  considerations  familiar 
to  every  man,  have  enabled  America  to  compete  with 
England,  not  only  in  the  markets  of  the  world,  but  in  the 
heart  of  London  itself. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  polytechnic  schools  of  Germany, 
the  patient  endurance  of  the  German  working-man,  the 
persistent  and  intelligent  efforts  of  German  capital,  and 
the  driving  and  directing  power  of  the  German  Emperor — 
all  focused  upon  a  policy  of  foreign  trade — have  made 
Germany  a  successful  competitor  of  England,  even  in  Eng- 
land's own  crown  colonies.  So  that  the  reasons  why  Eng- 
land was  for  open  doors  and  free  ports  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury ago  have  now  disappeared.  And  if  she  continues  in 
favor  of  them,  she  does  so  for  other  reasons  than  those 
which  caused  her  to  adopt  that  policy  in  the  first  place. 
So  it  is  not  believed  that  England  will  long  insist  on  an 
open  door  in  China,  provided  she  can  have  the  exclusive 
trade  of  the  Yang-tse  Valley. 

It  is  noted,  with  keen  interest  and  sincere  regret,  that 
English  commerce  and  English  policy  in  China  seem  to  be 
going  to  pieces.  It  is  expressive  of  the  sturdy  honesty  of 
the  English  character  (and  the  "bottom"  and  intrinsic 
worth  of  English  character  will  save  England  at  the  last) 
that  no  one  is  so  ready  to  recognize  this  fact,  or  even 
tell  of  it,  as  are  the  Englishmen  themselves  who  live  in 
China.  Four  years  ago  the  writer,  untravelled  and  unin- 
formed at  first  hand  on  conditions  in  the  East,  and,  there- 
fore, believing  that  the  only  vigorous  power  in  China  was 
England,  observed,  with  surprise  and  almost  consterna- 

167 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

tion,  the  too-evident  decline  of  British  commercial  and 
political  influence  in  the  Celestial  Empire.  The  increase 
in  this  decline,  upon  a  reinvestigation  of  Chinese  condi- 
tions two  years  later,  was  startling.^ 

It  is  very  hard  to  define  it,  but  you  will  know  it  the  mo- 
ment you  land.  There  is  an  atmosphere  of  drugged  and 
cocained  English  inactivity.  There  is  a  loss  of  heart ,  which 
some  attempt  to  conceal  by  boastful  words ;  but  time  and 
again  the  writer  has,  upon  more  intimate  acquaintance 
with  the  most  outspoken  boaster,  found  him  frankly  ad- 
mitting the  strange  torpor  which  seems  to  have  come  over 
English  policy  and  British  activity  in  the  Far  East.  One 
of  the  very  highest  military  authorities  said :  "  I  confess  I 
don't  know  what  our  policy  is  out  here.  I  do  not  believe 
anybody  knows." 

It  has  been  noted  before  that  English  ship-owners  are 
selling  out  their  lines.  The  Peninsular  and  Oriental  Com- 
pany must  soon  renew  its  fleets  or  be  so  out-distanced  by 
the  German  and  French  lines  that  it  cannot  afford  to  re- 
main in  the  contest.  The  sale  of  English  ship-lines  causes 
a  sort  of  commercial  paralysis,  visible  not  only  to  the 
heads  of  great  commercial  houses,  but  to  the  humblest 
clerks.  Said  the  first  officer  of  a  Japanese  merchant  ves- 
sel (he  was  an  Englishman,  born  in  New  Zealand,  and 
more  "imperial"  than  a  Londoner):  "I  do  not  know 
what  is  the  matter  with  our  people.  They  do  not  seem 
to  see  when  they  sell  out  a  ship-line  and  the  German  buys 
it  that  he  has  not  only  got  the  ships  of  that  line,  but  has 
secured  the  carrying  trade  that  goes  with  it.  And  it 
then  becomes  just  as  hard  for  the  former  English  owner 
to  introduce  a  new  line  as  it  would  have  been  for  the 
German  to  begin  competition  against  the  established 
English  line.  When  our  people  sell  out  their  ship-lines, 
they  cannot  replace  them.  They  have  lost  not  only  their 
ships;  they  have  lost  the  trade  which  goes  with  those 

*  Lord  Beresford  reports  the  same  thing. 
i68 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

ships,  and,  not  only  that,  but  the  prestige,  too.  They 
seem  to  be  blind.  I  actually  think  of  taking  a  trip  to 
England  just  to  see  with  my  own  eyes  what  is  the  matter 
with  the  English  people."  This  was  the  shrewd,  practical 
observation  of  a  thoroughly  up-to-date  English  sailor. 

Whatever  is  done  as  to  a  world  policy  with  reference 
to  the  future  of  China  will  not  be  done  upon  the  initiative 
of  Great  Britain,  unless  a  change  in  British  policy  takes 
place,  and  any  one  who  leans  on  that  expectation  will 
find  himself  reclining  on  a  broken  reed,  unless  a  meta- 
morphosis occurs  soon  in  the  British  government's  spirit 
and  purpose.  The  most  earnest  of  England's  friends 
can  only  hope  for  this  change.  But  Germany  and  Russia 
have  in  recent  years  been  given  such  right  of  way,  and 
they  have  come  so  thoroughly  to  believe  themselves  the 
only  powers  that  "do  things"  in  the  Celestial  Empire, 
that  the  most  friendly  observer  becomes  cautious  in  even 
hoping  for  a  permanent  revival  of  the  old-time  British 
clear-headedness,  courage,  and  fighting  forcefulness  in  the 
Orient. 

The  recent  offensive  and  defensive  treaty  between  Eng- 
land and  Japan  is  the  first  manifestation  of  diplomatic 
virility  by  England  in  the  Far  East  for  the  last  decade 
or  more.  Before  hazarding  anything  as  to  its  results,  it 
might  be  well  to  wait  and  ascertain  just  how  far  it  is  a  real 
alliance  of  blood  and  iron,  and  ships  and  guns,  and  life 
and  death,  on  the  one  hand,  and  just  how  far  it  is  a  paper 
alliance,  on  the  other  hand — just  how  far,  in  a  word,  Eng- 
land means  it.^ 

If  it  be  true  that  England  proposes  to  back  this  alliance 
with  force,  it  probably  means,  when  reduced  to  concrete 
terms,  that  she  is  convinced  that,  as  the  old  German 
merchant  said  in  the  conversation  above  quoted,  "Ger- 
many and   other  aggressive   powers   will    never   permit 

'  The  Anglo-Japanese  treaty  of  alliance  is  given  in  full  in  the 
appendix. 

169 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

England  to  occupy  the  Yang-tse  Valley  as  her  exclusive 
sphere  of  influence." 

How  she  proposes  to  get  the  fruits  of  an  open  door  in 
Manchuria  or  Shan-Tung,  where  the  Germans  and  Rus- 
sians control  the  railroads  and  can  exclude  her  goods  by 
the  simple  process  of  differential  railway  rates,  is  not  clear. 
An  aUiance  to  keep  the  open  door  in  China  does  not  go 
far  enough  to  accomplish  much.  As  will  be  pointed  out 
in  a  subsequent  chapter,  it  is  just  as  important  to  open 
the  interior,  so  that  merchandise  taken  through  the 
open  door  can  penetrate  inward,  as  it  is  to  keep  the  door 
itself  open. 

So  far  as  paper  statements  and  agreements  are  con- 
cerned, Russia,  Germany,  and  all  other  powers  have  de- 
clared their  intention  to  keep  the  door  open.  But  diplo- 
matic declarations  and  "paper  intentions"  amount  to 
little  in  the  face  of  railroads  actually  built  and  building, 
and  the  concrete  and  tangible  power  that  necessarily 
attends  them.  The  maintenance  of  the  open  door  is  only 
the  first  step  to  the  entire  reorganization  of  China. 

A  comprehensive  but  not  impossibly  difficult  policy 
might  be  agreed  upon  by  three  or  four  of  the  leading 
nations  of  the  world,  for  the  reorganization  of  China. 
It  would  be  done,  of  course,  through  the  machinery  of 
the  Chinese  administrative  system.  It  would  have  the 
effect  of  opening  the  interior  to  foreign  travel,  foreign 
merchandise,  and  foreign  communication  generally,  just 
as  the  treaty  ports  are  now  open  to  the  world;  of  safe- 
guarding life  and  property  throughout  this  immense 
country,  and,  in  general,  would  result  in  the  accomplish- 
ment of  many  of  the  ends  which  the  Japanese  feel  it 
is  their  destiny  in  the  Far  East  to  accomplish  under 
Japanese  suzerainty.  The  only  thing  to  prevent  this, 
the  greatest  reform  of  modern  or  perhaps  of  ancient 
times,  would  be  the  jealousies  and  ambitions  of  the 
powers.  Of  course,  the  United  States  would  not  take 
the  initiative.     For  one  thing,  we  are  not  yet  educated 

17c 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

up  to  the  point  of  material  and  tangible  interference  in 
the  affairs  of  other  countries,  no  matter  how  much  our 
interests  may  be  affected.  As  has  been  pointed  out, 
Japan  would  gladly  join  with  England  and  the  United 
States  in  such  a  programme ;  but  England  appears  to  be 
too  undecided  about  everything  to  undertake  any  further 
definite  work.  Germany  would  probably  not  hesitate 
could  she  be  assured  that  German  suzerainty  of  her  por- 
tion of  the  empire  would  not  be  disturbed,  but  even  be 
encouraged ;  but  as  the  integrity  of  the  empire  would  be 
one  of  the  ends  sought  by  such  an  agreement  of  the  powers, 
it  is  likely  that  Germany  would  not  feel  very  enthusiastic 
about  it.  If  it  be  true  that  the  Czar  is  secretly  the  suze- 
rain of  the  Manchu  Emperor,  as  so  many  believe,  or  if  it 
is  the  ultimate  Russian  intention  to  extend  Russian 
power  over  the  whole  of  China,  Russia  would  probably 
not  favor  such  an  enterprise;  and,  of  course,  France 
would  co-operate  with  Russia.  This  brief  analysis  of  the 
agencies  which  must  accomplish  this  work  seems  very 
discouraging.  And  yet  the  work  is  there  to  be  done,  and 
history  shows  that  just  such  impossible  situations  have 
time  and  again  crystallized  with  startling  rapidity. 

The  open  door  in  China  is  important  to  us,  but  open 
roads  which  lead  from  the  open  door  into  the  interior 
among  the  people  are  equally  important.  When  we  re- 
flect that  with  the  "likin"  tax  really  abolished  (it  is  now 
supposed  to  be  superseded  by  a  customs  arrangement, 
but  in  reality  it  is  not)  and  the  interior  of  China  freely  open 
to  foreign  goods  (which  it  never  has  been),  the  trade  of 
the  world  with  China  would  increase  at  once  to  a  thou- 
sand million  dollars  a  year  (and  later  on  to  much  more), 
and  that  the  great  bulk  of  this  trade  would  be  ours,  if 
we  would  only  take  it,  the  tremendous  importance  of  this 
subject  in  regard  to  the  future  of  American  mills,  mines, 
and  farms  is  apparent. 

But  the  questions  naturally  arise:  Why  is  it  that  a 
people  so  numerous,  so  ancient,  so  industrious,  so  vital 

171 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

as  the  Chinese,  will  permit  their  country  to  be  carved  up 
by  the  great  commercial  nations  of  the  world?  Why 
should  Americans  not  keep  their  hands  off,  cultivate 
China's  good-will,  and  increase  their  trade  by  force  of 
friendship  won  by  kindness?  These  are  questions  of 
first-class  importance,  and  the  next  chapter  will  be  de- 
voted to  them. 


XIII 

A     CHAPTER     OF     DIGRESSION:     AMERICAN     NEEDS     IN     THE 

ORIENT 

THE  Germans  have  carefully  evolved  their  theory  of 
Chinese  trade  and  Oriental  character,  and  the  Rus- 
sians have  done  the  like.  America,  however,  has  paid 
little  attention  to  this  immeasurable  and  near-by  market 
and  to  this  uncounted  and  interesting  people.  We  have 
applied  the  philosophy  of  happy-go-luckiness,  and  such 
trade  as  we  have  in  the  Orient  is  the  result  of  our  superior 
position  geographically,  of  our  incomparable  resources, 
of  the  excellence  of  our  goods,  and  of  the  diligent,  patient 
endeavors  of  a  few  American  merchants. 

"  But  is  not  our  trade  growing  with  astonishing  rapidity 
throughout  China  and  the  Far  East?"  is  the  answer  made 
to  the  plainest  suggestions  of  our  national  commercial 
necessities  with  reference  to  this  market.  Yes,  our  trade 
is  growing,  and  rapidly;  but  its  growth  is  slow  contrasted 
with  our  advantages.  We  are  only  a  little  more  than  four 
thousand  miles  away  from  that  market,  and  our  com- 
petitors are  practically  twice  as  far  away  by  sea.  We 
have  resources  which  defy  description  in  their  volume 
and  richness;  while  the  resources  of  our  competitors  are, 
comparatively  speaking,  limited  and  lean.  Germany  is 
an  example.  Compared  with  us,  her  resources  are  not 
considerable;  she  is  far  away  from  this  market;  and  yet, 
by  the  simple  application  of  system,  by  the  processes  of 
carefully  thought  -  out  theory  based  upon  patient  in- 
vestigations, Germany  is  forging  ahead  to  the  position  of 
the  first  commercial  power  in  the  Fax  East.    This  fact 

in 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

has  been  noted  before  in  a  previous  chapter,  but  its  im- 
portance requires  its  repetition  many  times. 

That  the  partition  of  China  is  imminent,  if  not  actually- 
going  on,  has  been  shown;  that  the  growth  of  German  and 
Russian  influence  is  start  lingly  rapid  and  permanently 
substantial  has  also  been  shown;  that  the  decHne  of  Eng- 
lish power  is  apparent  all  students  of  the  question  admit ; 
and  that  this  market  is  naturally  American  is  demon- 
strated by  the  simple  logic  of  geography.  But,  to  make 
it  American,  to  prevent  our  great  European  competitors 
from  taking  what  is  naturally  ours,  it  is  necessary  that  we, 
too,  shall  understand  the  people  with  whom  we  deal.  It 
is  necessary  that  we,  too,  shall  study  Oriental  character 
with  something  of  the  same  painstaking  care  adopted  by 
our  rivals;  for  knowledge  of  a  people's  character  is  a  prac- 
tical element  in  the  problem  of  trade.  Let  us  consider 
Chinese  character,  then. 

Singular,  is  it  not,  that  a  nation  of  four  hundred  million 
people  permit  the  occupation  of  various  portions  of  its 
territory?  Singular,  is  it  not,  that  a  nation  which  num- 
bers one-fourth  of  the  population  of  all  the  world  opens 
its  coastwise  trade  to  other  nations — the  only  instance 
of  the  kind  on  earth?  Singular  that  it  permits  the 
manifest  division  of  its  territory?  Yes,  singular,  indeed, 
if  this  aggregation  of  four  hundred  million  human  beings 
is  a  nation  in  the  sense  that  the  United  States  or  Germany 
or  France  or  Russia  is  a  nation. 

It  has  been  said  by  a  few  acute  observers  that  China  is 
a  conglomeration  of  states,  that  each  province  is  itself  a 
kingdom,  whose  governor  is,  for  all  practical  purposes,  an 
independent  monarch,  with  an  independent  military  force, 
independent  taxation,  and  accountable  to  the  central 
Manchu  head  of  the  system,  the  Emperor,  only  for  a  re- 
mittance of  imperial  revenues. 

This  is  true,  but  it  is  not  all  the  truth.  Even  these 
provincial  governments  are  not  definite  and  effective  or- 
ganizations like  our  States.     They  are  a  curious  form  of 

174 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

administration,  founded  upon  an  understanding  of  the 
singular  selfishness  of  the  individual,  and  permitting  him, 
therefore,  an  immense  measure  of  individual  freedom, 
combined  with  ruthless  interference  and  punishment  of 
the  individual  when  deemed  necessary  for  the  security  of 
this  government.  Careful  investigation  and  reinvesti- 
gation will  convince  any  one  who  goes  to  the  subject 
without  a  preconceived  opinion  that  the  two  elements  at 
the  bottom  of  Chinese  national  incapacity  are,  on  the  one 
hand,  individual  selfishness,  so  profound  that  we  cannot 
fathom  it;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  a  singular  respect  for 
power  and  force,  which  is  the  common  characteristic  of  all 
Oriental  peoples. 

The  streets  of  Pekin  are  not  to  be  described.  The 
writer  was  visiting,  for  the  second  time,  the  world-re- 
nowned Li  Hung  Chang,  and  while  there  one  of  the  sud- 
den downpours  of  heavy  rain  occurred.  On  leaving,  the 
streets  were  found  to  be  running  rivers  of  water,  which 
concealed  holes  and  ruts  of  two  or  three  feet  in  depth,  and 
gulleys  rooted  out  by  time  and  usage  as  by  the  snout  of 
some  monster.  A  naked  coolie,  attempting  to  cross  from 
house  to  house,  plunged  up  to  his  neck  into  a  hole  in  the 
middle  of  the  street.  A  mule  and  its  rider  fell  into  an- 
other, and  were  not  extricated  in  the  course  of  an  hour. 

"Why  do  you  not  pave  the  streets  in  front  of  your 
house?"  was  asked  of  a  Chinaman  of  superior  intellience 
and  education.  "Why  should  I  go  to  that  expense?  It 
is  not  my  street." 

Mr.  Smith,  in  his  excellent  book,  Chinese  Characteristics 
(every  one  who  wants  to  understand  the  Chinese  from  a 
kindly  but  just  point  of  view  should  read  that  book), 
explains  the  philosophy  of  roads,  or  the  lack  of  them,  in 
China.  These  passageways  wind  in,  around,  and  about, 
and  are  worn,  by  countless  feet  and  the  eroding  influences 
of  numerous  rainfalls,  into  little  ravines.  Nobody  repairs 
them.  "It  is  not  my  business,"  said  a  Chinese  farmer. 
The  Grand  Canal,  one  of  the  monumental  works  of  human 

175 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

hands,  has  become  so  choked  with  sand  and  weeds  as  to 
be  impassable  at  one  or  two  points.  The  government 
will  not  repair  it,  because  (as  it  is  said)  the  government 
sees  no  way  of  making  anything  out  of  it  for  itself  and 
its  favorites.  And  the  people  will  not  repair  it,  "because 
it  is  none  of  their  business." 

"How  do  you  manage  to  interest  your  people  in  mili- 
tary affairs?"  asked  one  of  the  first  business  men  of  China, 
and  a  millionaire  (a  pure  Chinaman).  "How  do  you  get 
your  militia  companies  formed?  How  do  you  interest 
men  enough  to  induce  them  to  enlist?"  The  whole  in- 
quiry of  this  great  man  was  not  of  business,  but  military, 
military,  military.  When  it  was  explained  to  him  that, 
with  us,  every  man  feels  that  the  government  is  his  own, 
that  the  condition  of  the  roads  is  his  personal  concern, 
that  the  defence  of  the  country  is  of  the  highest  individual 
consequence,  that  the  element  of  personal  selfishness  is 
almost  eliminated  from  the  public  mind  of  the  citizen, 
he  shook  his  head  sadly  and  said:  "Ah,  yes!  that  is  our 
trouble.  How  shall  the  people  be  lifted  out  of  each  one's 
individual  self?" 

It  was  not  always  so  with  China.  There  was  a  day,  some 
hundreds  of  years  ago,  when  "  I  and  my  house"  were  not 
the  sacred  formulas  which  every  Chinaman  repeats  to 
himself  to  -  day.  There  was  a  time  when  China  was 
heroic,  masterful,  consolidated,  militant,  devotional.  But 
centuries  have  passed  since  then.  It  is  not  within  the 
province  of  this  chapter  to  explain  the  reasons  for  the 
change.  What  we  are  noting  is  the  change.  We  are 
noting  it  in  order  that  we  may  try  to  understand,  feebly 
at  least,  these  four  hundred  million  people  with  whom 
we  wish  to  trade,  and  whose  trade  relations  with  us  will 
more  quickly  rescue  them  from  their  strange  decline  than 
would  anything  else  —  feebly  understand  them,  for  no 
foreigner  may  hope  ever  to  understand  them  entirely. 

"The  trouble  with  China,"  said  a  penetrating  observer, 
"is  arrested  development.     China  is  like  a  man  who  starts 

176 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

out  with  brilliant  promise  and  continues  to  a  certain 
point,  and  then  apparently  undergoes  an  atrophy  of  all 
his  powers." 

It  is  each  man  for  himself  among  these  four  hundred 
millions,  or,  at  most,  each  man  for  his  family  or  his  clan. 
Wealth,  power,  are  the  things  he  chiefly  respects.  He 
understands  them.  If  you  quote  the  maxims  of  Mencius 
and  Confucius,  you  must  remember  that  they  were  pro- 
nounced when  China  was  great.  You  must  remember 
the  remark  of  the  young  Chinese  merchant  of  Shanghai, 
quoted  in  a  previous  chapter,  that  Chinese  merchants 
care  nothing  about  who  governs  them,  their  only  interest 
being  an  opportunity  to  make  money.  Any  administra- 
tion which  would  secure  that  supreme  end  would  be  wel- 
comed and  supported  by  the  commercial  men  of  the  em- 
pire, if  they  were  sure  such  a  government  would  stand. 
It  is  commonplace  that  China  invented  printing;  yes, 
but  she  prints  no  books  now — at  least,  none  of  modem 
interest;  that  she  invented  gunpowder;  true,  and  yet  she 
is  practically  without  arms  with  which  gunpowder  is 
used — only  just  noW  she  is  making  them ;  that  she  devel- 
oped the  science  of  astronomy;  true  again,  and  yet  her 
instruments  are  rust.  "Arrested  development,"  said  the 
life-long  student  of  China  and  the  Chinese. 

It  must  not  be  inferred  that  the  individual  Chinaman  is 
not  a  man  of  intelligence.  Decidedly  the  contrary  is  the 
truth.  Some  of  the  compradors  of  China  rival,  if  they 
do  not  surpass,  the  chiefs  of  the  foreign  houses  that 
employ  them.  There  are  not  better  business-men  in  any 
country  than  hundreds  of  the  business -men  of  China. 
Their  bankers  and  money-changers  are  keen  to  the  last 
degree.  An  educated  Chinaman  will  entertain  you  with 
talk  as  fertile  and  informing  as  that  of  any  man  turned 
out  of  our  own  universities.  The  industry,  frugality, 
patience  of  the  Chinese  as  a  people  are  proverbial;  and 
yet,  with  all  of  these  good  qualities,  interest  in  their 
government  and  nationality  appears  to  be  wanting.     It 

xa  177 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

cannot  be  said  that  they  are  without  the  instinct  of 
cohesion;  and  yet  that  instinct  does  not  manifest  itself  in 
government.  They  are  not  without  patriotism.  Every- 
body is  familiar  with  the  passionate  desire  of  the  China- 
man to  be  buried  in  his  native  soil ;  and  yet  their  patriotism 
does  not  make  them  a  consolidated,  masterful  nation 
such  as  their  individual  virtues,  above  enumerated,  would 
seem  to  justify.  All  these  things  make  the  peculiar 
atrophy  of  Chinese  power,  as  expressed  through  forms 
of  government,  all  the  more  remarkable.  And  all  this 
emphasizes  the  explanation  which  most  students  of 
Chinese  character  give — namely,  the  selfishness  of  the 
individual,  his  lack  of  interest  in  the  government  of  his 
country,  and  his  appreciation  of  power,  no  matter  in  what 
form  it  appears. 

These  brief  outlines,  which  are  the  basis  of  the  German 
and  Russian  theory  of  China  and  the  Chinese,  will  explain 
why  it  is  that  the  exhibition  of  power  is  considered  by 
these  European  powers  a  positive  trade  asset  in  the 
Orient.  It  explains  why  it  is  that  Germany,  instead  of 
losing,  believes  that  she  actually  gains  by  her  barracks, 
her  soldiers,  her  ships,  and  even  by  her  seizure  of 
Chinese  territory.  It  is  power,  force — visible,  tangible 
predominance.  And  the  Europeans  believe  that  the 
Chinese  respect  it,  however  much  the  officials  may 
hate  it. 

A  recommendation  that  our  government  should  follow 
the  Russian,  French,  and  German  example  of  the  seizure 
of  territory  in  the  empire  is  distinctly  disavowed.  But 
it  is  asserted  that  America  must  very  soon  become  an 
influential  external  power  in  Oriental  affairs,  so  that 
further  changes  of  the  map  of  China  will  be  made  only 
after  consultation  with  us.  A  great  duty — perhaps  the 
greatest  of  history  —  is  gradually  evolving  out  of  the 
chaos  of  human  conditions  in  the  Orient.  Nobody  will 
deny  that  if  China's  millions  could  be  kept  in  China  and 
yet  be  brought  into  commercial  contact  with  the  civiliza- 

178 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

tion  of  the  rest  of  the  world,  it  would  be  good  for  them 
and  good  for  the  world. 

Tt  is  established  that  China  cannot  do  this,  or  rather 
will  not  do  it,  if  left  to  herself.  The  centuries  are  unan- 
swerable arguments  to  sustain  this  proposition.  What 
she  was  five  hundred  years  ago  China  is  to-day,  save  only 
where  the  trade  aggressions  of  European  nations  have 
forced  foreign  commerce  and  western  civilization  upon  her. 
Leroy-Beaulieu  points  out  that  every  trade  concession 
of  moment,  every  advance  of  modem  civilization,  has 
been  forced  upon  China  with  the  cannon.  An  uprising 
and  conflict;  Chinese  defeat;  and,  as  the  fruit  of  this 
defeat,  treaty  concessions,  opening  of  ports,  the  safe- 
guarding of  foreigners  and  foreign  commerce — such,  he 
declares,  is  the  record. 

The  whole  world  has  profited  by  each  of  these  ' '  ag- 
gressions," which  opened  up  new  ports.  First  of  all,  and 
most  of  all,  China  herself  has  profited.  Next  to  China, 
and,  properly,  the  nation  which  took  a  ruling  hand  in 
bringing  about  the  new  conditions  has  profited;  and, 
lastly,  the  rest  of  the  world  has  profited,  too.  If  the  beds 
of  coal,  which  exceed  in  richness  the  deposits  of  any 
other  portion  of  the  earth,  were  opened;  if  the  products 
of  China's  wonderfully  fertile  soil  could  be  freely  and 
easily  exchanged  for  the  output  of  other  nations;  if  the 
wants  of  these  myriads  of  people  could  be  increased  two- 
fold (and  wherever  modern  commerce  and  civilization 
have  touched  Chinamen  their  wants  have  been  increased 
not  two  but  many  fold) ;  if  these  wants  could  be  partly 
supplied  by  the  other  nations  of  the  earth,  while  the 
Chinese  people  themselves  were  supplying  those  other 
nations  with  the  products  for  which  nature  has  particu- 
larly equipped  them  and  their  country,  and  which  other 
nations  are  not  prepared  to  produce,  the  benefit  to  the 
world  and  to  China  as  a  people  would  be  beyond  all  esti- 
mate. 

And  the  supply  of  most  of  the  wants  of  China's  four 

179 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

hundred  millions  should  be  made  by  the  American  people, 
for  the  simple  reason  of  location. 

What  this  would  mean  to  us  in  the  immediate  present, 
without  further  extension  of  China's  foreign  commerce, 
is  clear  when  we  reflect  that  we  have  scarcely  ten  per 
cent,  of  the  foreign  trade  of  China,  though  we  are  en- 
titled to  fifty  per  cent,  at  least.  I  repeat  for  the  third 
time  that  the  removal  of  the  "likin,"  or  transportation 
tax  on  goods  carried  into  the  interior  of  China  would 
alone  and  unaided  increase  China's  foreign  trade  to  a 
thousand  milHon  dollars  a  year.  Think  of  what  fifty 
per  cent,  of  that  would  mean  to  us!  Employment  for 
America's  working-men  is  the  problem  that  will  con- 
stantly grow  more  serious;  and  no  solution  is  possible 
except  markets  for  what  America  produces.  And  so 
the  question  of  Oriental  export  trade  becomes  insistently 
important. 

But  whatever  may  be  done  in  the  way  of  tax  and  other 
reforms  in  China,  all  will  agree  that  American  trade  and 
American  prestige  in  the  Orient  must  be  pushed  steadily 
and  by  the  minuter  methods. 

Every  American  merchant  in  China  will  tell  you  that 
first  of  all  we  need  American  ships.  When  American 
trade  held  the  first  place  in  the  Orient,  the  American  flag 
was  seen  in  every  port.  It  was  a  great  advertisement  then. 
A  brilliant  writer  tells  of  an  old  Chinese  merchant  who, 
in  inquiring  about  the  absence  of  American  trade,  said: 
"We  used  to  have  it.  This  port  was  once  filled  with 
your  flowery  starry  banner.  Where  has  your  flowery 
starry  banner  gone?" 

Oriental  ship-lines  are  a  prime  necessity  for  an  increase 
in  America's  trade  with  the  Orient.  There  is  absolutely 
no  difference  of  opinion  among  Americans  in  the  Far  East 
upon  this  point.  Here,  again,  is  seen  the  effect  upon  the 
Oriental  mind  of  something  which  the  Chinaman  can  see, 
something  whose  magnitude  and  power  he  can  behold. 
The  German  merchant  of  Shanghai  who  pointed  to  the 

i8o 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

German  flag  in  the  water  -  front  declared  it  to  be  his 
greatest  commercial  asset.  There  is  no  commercial  agent 
to  compare  with  the  patriotic  officer  of  a  steamship 
company,  proud  of  his  line,  his  flag,  and  his  nation.  It 
is  not  enough  for  the  captain  and  officers  of  a  ship  that 
they  carry  their  cargo  safely — the  word  upon  their  tongue 
at  every  port  they  touch  is  the  commerce,  the  power,  the 
progress  of  the  nation  to  which  they  belong. 

Then,  too,  when  any  nation  has  ship-lines  established, 
they  must  have  freight  to  carry,  and  so  the  company 
to  which  they  belong  devises  new  methods  of  securing 
this  freight — that  is,  they  create  new  trade.  Again,  as 
the  trade  grows  the  rates  of  freight  decrease.  This  is 
plain  reason,  and  it  is  plainer  history.  So  that  the  first 
great  requirement  in  the  substantial  and  permanent 
increase  of  American  Oriental  trade  is  American  ship- 
lines.  If  American  capital  could  be  interested  in  this 
vast  enterprise,  which  combines  patriotism  and  business, 
it  would  be  good  for  the  capital  invested,  good  for  the 
merchandise  carried,  and,  best  of  all,  for  the  increase  of 
American  trade. 

It  is  so  curious  that  the  historian  of  a  hundred  years 
from  now,  reviewing  this  subject,  which  then  will  be  the 
great  question  (indeed,  in  two  or  three  years  it  will  be 
the  great  question),  will  find  it  hard  to  credit  the  fact  he 
records,  that,  being  nearer  to  China  than  any  other  com- 
peting nation,  needing  her  market,  having  resources  to 
supply  it  unequalled  in  all  the  world,  and  being,  too,  the 
keenest  financial  nation  of  modem  times,  the  United 
States  had  no  banking  facilities  in  the  Orient.  It  is  the 
second  necessity  for  the  permanent  increase  of  American 
commerce  with  China  that  a  great  American  banking 
establishment  be  planted  in  every  port  of  the  Far  East. 
The  Chinaman  understands  money  just  as  he  understands 
power  in  any  other  form. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  explain  the  intimate  connection 
between  trade,  on  the  one  hand,  and  banks  of  deposit 

i8i 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

and  exchange  on  the  other  hand.  Every  grocery -man  in 
every  country  village  in  America  understands  that  from 
personal  experience.  England  has  two  immense  financial 
organizations  in  the  Orient — the  Chartered  Bank  of  India, 
China,  and  Australia,  and  the  Hong-Kong  and  Shanghai 
Banking  Corporation,  and  their  branches  exist  every- 
where. They  have  been  the  chief  agencies  in  conserving 
England's  predominant  commercial  power,  but  even  they 
have  not  been  able  to  check  her  decline.  Germany  has 
established  within  a  few  years  a  large  financial  institution, 
whose  branches  have  now  spread  to  most,  if  not  all,  the 
treaty  ports  of  the  empire.  It  has  been  pointed  out  that 
Russia,  through  her  financial  agency,  the  Russo-Chinese 
Bank,  is  shooting  the  filaments  of  her  power  throughout 
the  Pacific  Far  East. 

At  present  American  trade  must  be  conducted  through 
these  foreign  financial  institutions.  It  should  not  be  so. 
We  ought  to  have  in  the  Orient  an  American  financial 
institution  of  magnitude  to  match  the  power  of  the 
American  nation,  and  which  shall  be  equal  to  the  com- 
manding commercial  position  to  which  the  American 
people  aspire  in  the  Far  East. 

The  methods  of  banking  in  the  East  are  peculiar. 
A  bank  discounts  its  own  notes  between  two  ports, 
estimating  the  amount  of  the  discount  by  the  cost  re- 
quired in  transporting  that  exact  amount  of  specie, 
separately  and  by  itself,  between  them — that  is,  if  you 
present  a  note  issued  by  a  banking  corporation  at  Hong- 
Kong  to  its  branch  at  Tien-Tsin,  it  will  not  be  redeemed 
at  its  face  value,  but  at  a  rate  measured  by  the  cost  of 
transferring  that  particular  amount  of  silver  between 
those  two  points.  The  system  of  issuing  notes  of  ex- 
change is  unscientific,  and  at  every  point  the  bank  cuts  a 
profit  for  itself. 

Like  Russian  banks  in  Russia,  foreign  banks  in  the 
Orient  go  into  every  conceivable  transaction,  shaving 
always  and  everywhere.     They  are,  therefore,  not  con- 

182 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

ducted  on  the  broad  lines  of  modern  scientific  methods, 
as  bankers  here  and  in  Europe  understand  banking.  An 
American  bank  equal  to  the  task  should  be  established, 
which  would  put  American  inventiveness  at  work  upon 
the  great  task  of  establishing  a  uniform  currency,  at 
least  among  the  treaty  ports.  Experience  would  soon 
show  the  Chinese  merchant  and  dealer  everywhere  the 
unquestioned  value  of  its  notes,  and  a  common  circulating 
medium  would  thus  be  established,  whose  influence  in 
facilitating  trade  would  be  as  great  as  it  would  be  bene- 
ficial. A  great  American  bank,  then,  is  the  second  need 
for  the  permanent  increase  of  American  trade  in  the 
Orient. 

It  is  said  that  our  consular  service  should  be  improved. 
But  whatever  fault  may  have  been  found  in  the  past 
with  the  quality  and  personal  character  of  the  govern- 
ment's commercial  representatives  in  China,  it  is  ad- 
mitted that  our  present  staff  of  consuls  in  the  Orient 
measures  quite  up  to  the  standard  of  foreign  countries, 
with  the  possible  exception  of  Germany.  This  is  a  sub- 
ject (consular  reform)  in  which  personal  investigation 
compels  more  changes  of  view  than  any  similar  problem. 
On  the  one  hand  it  is  pointed  out,  and  with  apparent 
unanswerableness,  that  it  is  quite  impossible  for  the 
consul  without  special  training  and  without  practical 
knowledge  of  his  duties,  and  of  the  people  among  whom 
he  goes,  to  represent  properly  the  commercial  interests 
of  his  country. 

On  the  face  of  the  paper  argument,  it  seems  clear  that 
the  longer  a  consul  continues  to  reside  among  the  people 
to  whom  he  is  accredited,  the  better  acquainted  he  be- 
comes with  their  needs  and  the  better  equipped  for  the 
discharge  of  his  important  duties  and  the  extension  of 
American  trade.  But  the  fact  must  be  recorded  that 
American  consuls  in  China  are,  with  an  occasional  and 
conspicuous  exception,  quite  the  most  efficient  commercial 
representatives  which  any  government  (excepting  always 

X83 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Germany)  has  on  that  difficult  ground.  This  will  become 
more  and  more  the  truth  as  our  trade  with  China  in- 
creases. It  will  become  truer,  too,  as  care  comes  in- 
creasingly to  be  exercised  in  the  selection  of  those  im- 
portant officials.  Natural  conditions  and  the  steadily 
rising  quality  of  our  national  administration  with  respect 
to  foreign  countries  insure  this. 

Twenty  years  ago  so  little  attention  was  given  to  our 
foreign  commerce  that  our  consular  posts  abroad  were, 
with  somie  creditable  exceptions,  considered  exclusively 
as  the  proper  reward  of  local  pohtical  work,  without 
any  regard  whatever  to  the  tasks  the  consul  was  expected 
to  perform  at  his  post.  The  change  wrought  by  the 
natural  causes  above  pointed  out  has  been  greater  and 
the  improvement  more  marked  than  in  the  consular  ser- 
vice of  any  other  country.  But  whatever  the  cause,  it  is 
admitted  on  all  hands  that  the  American  consuls  in  China 
have  a  greater  keenness  of  insight  into  the  real  nature  of 
commercial  conditions  where  they  are  sent;  they  have  a 
better  mastery  of  the  practical  situation,  a  higher  com- 
prehension in  the  discharge  of  their  duties,  a  fresher  and 
more  unworn  interest  in  the  extension  of  our  commerce 
than  have  the  consuls  of  any  other  country  (please  note, 
always,  and  for  the  last  time,  except  Germany). 

One  of  the  first  business-men  of  China  (a  pure  China- 
man), and  an  Englishman,  whose  great  reputation  is  justi- 
fied by  his  work  and  abilities,  united  in  this  sentiment 
concerning  the  American  consul  at  a  certain  Chinese 
port:  "  He  is  the  most  efficient  man  on  the  groimd.  It  is 
the  consensus  of  opinion  that  his  tact,  firmness,  ready  re- 
source, and  unvv'earying  energy  prevented  a  spread  of  the 
Boxer  troubles  in  the  melancholy  year  of  1900." 

"Yes,"  said  another  foreign  merchant,  "the  American 
consuls  seem  to  be  unhappy  unless  they  are  making  some 
record  for  themselves  or  their  country." 

Certain  it  is  that  the  reports  from  at  least  one  consular 
office  in  China  are  the  most  exhaustive,  most  trustworthy, 

184 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

and  best  analyzed  commercial  statements  that  come  from 
the  Far  East.  "One  point  of  superiority  of  your  consuls 
over  ours,"  said  an  English  shipping  man,  "is  their  ac- 
cessibility. Anybody  can  see  the  American  consul  at 
any  time,  but,"  he  sourly  continued,  "to  see  the  British 
consul  is  almost  an. affair  of  state."  ^ 

It  is  freely  admitted  that  consuls  of  other  countries 
surpass  ours  in  the  points  of  small  society  duties.  They 
are  quite  accomplished  in  all  the  engaging  devices  of 
social  intercourse.  American  tourists  travelling  around 
the  world  for  pleasure,  and  therefore  looking  for  social 
entertainment,  usually  come  away  from  the  treaty  ports 
of  China  deeply  impressed  with  the  equipment  of  the 
consuls  of  rival  countries,  particularly  those  of  Great 
Britain,  and  with  bad  opinions  of  our  own  men.  But 
our  men  are  the  quintessence  of  the  practical.  They 
have  been  reared  in  the  American  school  of  the  practical, 
and  they  have  acquired  the  habit  of  resourceful  inventive- 
ness, which  is  so  distinctive  a  characteristic  of  our  business 
and  industrial  civilization.  They  see  the  point  to  things, 
and,  seeing  the  point,  they  act. 

The  thought  is  repeatedly  forced  upon  one  who  may 
have  been  originally  hostile  to  what  a  witty  observer  calls 
our  present  "consular  chaos,"  that,  after  all,  it  may  be 
that  the  education  which  comes  to  a  man  from  successful 
and  active  participation  in  American  politics,  the  alert- 
ness and  vitality  of  mind  fostered  by  the  rich  soil  of 
American  business  effort,  are  of  notable  value  in  preparing 
a  man  for  the  practical  duties  of  his  country's  service. 
It  is  certainly  true  that  the  adaptability  of  the  American 
commercial  representative  is  something  quite  unmatched. 
He  goes  to  a  place  fresh  from  the  electric  atmosphere  of 
America,  filled  v/ith  the  wonder  and  curiosity  aroused  by 

*  Lord  Charles  Beresford,on  his  return  from  his  extended  visit 
to  China,  reported  the  numerous  complaints  of  British  merchants 
against  British  consuls;  and  he  fearlessly  pointed  out  the  decline 
of  British  prestige  in  the  Far  East. 

185 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  new  land,  the  new  people,  and  the  strange  conditions 
among  which  he  finds  himself.  He  sees  the  great  points 
of  difference  between  such  conditions  and  our  own,  and 
it  is  an  understanding  of  these  points  of  difference  which 
is  of  greater  importance  than  is  a  dulled  comprehension 
of  the  people  themselves. 


XIV 

A  SECOND  CHAPTER  OF  DIGRESSION:    AMERICAN  PROGRESS 
IN    THE    FAR    EAST 

IT  has  grown  into  a  truism  that  no  one  who  has  resided 
for  a  long  time  among  a  foreign  people  can  write  in- 
telligently about  them.  The  reason  is  that  these  very- 
points  of  difference  which  constitute  the  essential  matters 
of  interest  become  commonplace  after  a  surprisingly  short 
residence,  and  the  very  things  which  a  new-comer  notes 
with  greatest  interest,  and  which  are,  in  fact,  of  greatest 
interest,  soon  become  obscured  by  familiarity. 

"I  have  been  here  in  Nagasaki  three  weeks,"  said  a 
young  American  woman,  "and,  whereas  the  first  week  I 
could  not  write  letters  enough  of  these  strange  people, 
now  I  can  write  nothing  at  all  except  that  the  China 
arrived  yesterday  or  that  one  of  the  Empress  boats  is 
expected  in  to-morrow.  All  of  the  things  which  were  so 
novel  to  me  when  I  landed  have  now  become  matters 
of  course." 

The  same  thing  is  true  of  everybody  else,  and,  of  course, 
of  the  American  consul,  excepting  that,  in  his  case,  he 
has  duties  which  keep  him  discovering  new  and  fresh 
subjects  of  interest  for  a  long  season.  The  keenness  of 
his  new  experiences  is  a  practical  asset  which  statesman- 
.•^hip  would  do  poorly  to  overlook.  Then,  too,  he  goes 
to  the  work  with  determination  to  make  a  "record"  for 
himself  and  for  his  government.  He  is  a  fresh  charge  of 
Americanism  for  the  particular  point  to  which  he  is  sent. 
He  is  always  at  the  beck  and  call  of  the  American  mer- 
chants.    He  is  anxious  to  make  a  little  better  report  to 

187 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  State  Department  than  anybody  else  makes  to  any 
other  government.  "That  man,"  said  an  American 
Oriental  merchant,  naming  an  American  Oriental  consul 
of  almost  sixty,  "is  positively  unhappy  if  he  goes  to  bed 
at  night  without  having  accomplished  some  specific  thing 
for  American  trade." 

What  to  do  to  improve  our  consular  service  is,  there- 
fore, not  so  clear.  If  some  method  could  be  devised  by 
which  we  could  continue  our  consuls  for  a  long  period  of 
service — indeed,  make  them  practically  life  ofificers,  and 
at  the  same  time  keep  up  their  energy  and  interest,  which 
the  experience  of  other  governments  has  shown  is  gradu- 
ally destroyed  by  long  residence  in  a  country — then  the 
problem  would  be  simplified,  if  not  solved. 

The  German  Emperor  has  accompli.shed  this  by  his 
personal  interest  and  activity.  Every  man  is  made  to 
feel  that  the  Emperor  William's  eye  is  on  him,  that  every 
German  merchant's  eye  is  on  him,  and  that  he  will 
be  reported,  or  reprimanded,  or  promoted,  according  to 
the  neglect  or  discharge  of  his  duty.  But  the  consuls  of 
other  countries  holding  life  tenures  soon  become  atrophied 
in  interest;  their  activities  undergo  a  stupefying  and  re- 
laxing process  by  reason  of  the  certainty  of  their  tenure 
and  their  long  familiarity  with  conditions,  a  familiarity 
which,  in  the  end,  makes  everything  commonplace  and 
as  a  matter  of  course  to  them. 

This  is  a  perplexing  subject.  Our  consular  service 
must  be  improved;  but  the  difficulty  is  to  avoid,  in  the 
improving,  the  paring  away  of  that  vigorous  quality 
which  now  makes  our  consuls,  unequipped  though  they 
may  be,  superior  to  those  of  any  other  nation.  Dr.  Vos- 
berg-Rekow,  head  of  the  German  Bureau  of  Commercial 
Treaties,  says  that  "the  United  States  has  covered  Eu- 
rope with  a  net-work  of  consulates,  and  makes  its  consuls 
at  the  same  time  inspectors  of  our  exports,  and  vigilant 
sentinels  who,  spying  out  our  trade  openings,  make  them 
their  advantage  and  report  them." 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

This  is  a  tribute  to  the  intelhgence  and  vigilance  of  our 
consular  service  from  our  most  watchful  and  most  in- 
creasingly active  commercial  rival.  If  to  these  advan- 
tages of  practical  resourcefulness  we  can  add  knowledge 
of  the  language  of  the  country  to  which  the  consul  is 
accredited,  a  long  tenure  of  service,  and  the  appointment 
of  none  but  trustworthy  and  approved  men,  and  if  we 
can  at  the  same  time  evolve  some  method  to  keep  their 
interest  and  energy  constantly  fresh,  we  shall  have  solved 
the  problem. 

The  building  of  railroads  in  China  will  be  the  one  great 
industrial  development  of  the  tv/entieth  century,  so  far 
as  foreign  investment  in  Asia  is  concerned.  There  are 
probably  thirty  thousand  miles  of  line  projected  and 
actually  surveyed,  but  the  extent  of  the  rails  laid  upon 
which  trains  are  running  in  the  Chinese  Empire,  exclusive 
of  Manchuria,  is  less  than  four  hundred  miles.  This  is 
not  one  mile  of  railroad  in  China  for  every  million  people. 
That  great  trunk-lines  in  every  direction  will  be  built, 
and  that  speedily,  speaking  in  the  historical  sense,  is  as 
certain  as  the  progress  of  civilization  itself;  and  wher- 
ever a  line  of  railroad  goes,  trade  goes,  and  where  a  line  of 
railroad  goes  the  trade  of  the  nation  which  built  it  is 
chiefly  carried. 

Germany's  concession  in  Shan-Tung  has  been  set  out 
in  full  in  another  chapter.  Very  little  goods  will  be 
carried  along  those  lines  except  such  as  bear  the  trade- 
mark, "made  in  Germany."  It  has  been  pointed  out  that 
judicial  and  police  privileges  accompany  these  grants, 
and  that,  however  it  may  be  disguised,  and  however  the 
machinery  of  Chinese  administration  may  be  employed, 
the  hand  of  German  law  and  order  will  in  reality  be  over 
all.  And  by  this  plan,  it  has  been  noted,  the  practical 
partition  of  China  is  moving  forward. 

The  far-sightedness  of  the  Russians  in  pushing  their 
railway  lines  through  this  mighty  area  of  future  human 
development,  the  associated   activities   of  French  and 

i8g 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Belgian  syndicates,  as  is  believed  in  connection  and  co- 
operation with  Russia,  have  been  observed.  In  this  par- 
ticular the  English  themselves  have  exhibited  a  flash  of 
their  old  energy  and  daring  resourcefulness  in  projecting 
a  line  into  China,  connecting  its  principal  cities  with  the 
great  British  railway  system  of  India. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  American  syndicates  have  not 
looked  into  this  matter.  One,  indeed,  did  so  and  was 
convinced  of  the  profitable  nature  of  the  enterprise,  and 
a  railway  concession  was  secured  from  the  Chinese  govern- 
ment. But  it  is  said  that,  since  the  death  of  its  principal 
promoter,  the  American  interest  has  been  largely  aban- 
doned. It  is  hard  to  believe  that  American  capital, 
which  is  now  looking  abroad  for  opportunities  of  invest- 
ment and  exploitation  worthy  of  its  magnitude,  energy, 
resourcefulness,  and  power,  will  long  overlook  these  op- 
portunities. Two  or  three  lines  of  road,  built  by  our 
citizens  and  backed  by  our  government  with  its  indorse- 
ment (not  necessarily  financial,  of  course)  and  diplomatic 
aid,  could  be  built  in  China,  and  a  firm  foothold  could 
thus  be  secured,  from  which  the  future  of  American  com- 
merce in  the  Orient  might  be  safeguarded  and  satisfac- 
torily and  practically  increased. 

The  fear  which  thoughtful  Americans  who  go  over  the 
ground  are  forced  to  entertain  is  that  our  great  aggre- 
gations of  capital  will  overlook  this  most  inviting  field 
until  the  choice  routes  have  been  pre-empted  by  the 
capitalists  of  other  nations,  and  until  the  joint  action  of 
rival  powers  will  compel  the  Chinese  government  to  refuse 
further  railway  concessions,  or  at  least  further  concessions 
to  us.  Should  this  unfortunate  development  occur,  it  will, 
indeed,  be  a  sorry  circumstance.  Moralizing  is  of  little 
use  in  practical  affairs,  but  occasionally  a  dash  of  it  is 
needed  to  give  spirit  and  meaning  to  material  enterprise. 
And  the  thought  is  here  interjected  that  perhaps  Amer- 
icans are  taking  too  much  for  granted  as  to  our  future, 
that  it  may  turn  out  in  the  course  of  a  few  decades  that 

190 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

we  have  not  been  far-seeing  enough,  that  our  eyes  are 
fixed  so  immovably  upon  the  steady  stream  of  gold 
pouring  into  our  coffers  at  this  particular  moment  that 
we  look  not  to  the  sources  which  must  continue  that 
stream  in  the  future. 

Another  thing  which  the  government  might  do,  and 
which  would  have  a  beneficial  effect  upon  American  trade 
in  China,  is  to  keep  in  Chinese  waters  all  but  one  or  two 
ships  of  our  Pacific  squadron.  Moreover,  the  heaviest 
part  of  our  navy  should  be  kept  in  Asiatic  waters.  It  is 
there  that  the  conflicts  of  the  future  will  occur,  and  it  is 
there  where  our  visible  power  should  be  manifest  to  all 
beholders.  German  trade  increases,  say  German  mer- 
chants, with  every  German  war-ship  that  appears  in 
Chinese  ports.  It  is  a  circumstance  worth  noting  that 
British  trade  has  decreased  coincidently  with  the  de- 
crease in  the  number  of  British  flags  appearing  in  Chinese 
waters.  It  is  unprofitable  to  take  too  much  space  in 
tracing  out  the  psychological  causes  of  this;  but,  briefly, 
it  may  be  said  again,  as  it  has  been  said  before,  that 
the  Chinese,  like  all  Orientals,  are  impressed,  in  a  way 
quite  impossible  for  our  race  to  understand,  by  evi- 
dences of  power  which  they  can  behold  with  the  physi- 
cal eye. 

No  difference  of  opinion  was  found  in  the  pride  which 
European  or  American  residents  in  China  took  in  the  visit 
of  their  respective  nation's  war  vessels.  Strange  as  it 
may  appear  to  those  not  on  the  ground,  such  physical 
manifestations  of  a  foreign  nation's  might  certainly  cre- 
ates an  "  atmosphere"  distinctly  favorable  to  that  nation. 
"  It  makes  me  feel  that  I  am  not  entirely  in  another  world 
when  I  see  the  flag  floating  from  one  of  our  war-ships," 
said  an  American  lady  living  in  the  Orient.  "  It  is  almost 
funny  to  see  what  an  impression  the  frequent  visits  of 
the  vessels  of  the  German  navy  make  on  these  people. 
But  the  mass  of  the  business  people  we  deal  with  here 
think  that  our  country  certainly  cannot  amount  to  very 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

much,  for  they  never  see  our  war-ships  and  seldom  behold 
our  flag,"  said  an  American  Oriental  merchant. 

It  is  not  suggested  that  our  Asiatic  squadron  should 
frequently  visit  Chinese  treaty  ports  for  the  purpose  of 
awing  or  intimidating  the  people.  On  the  contrary,  the 
exact  reverse  is  stated.  The  point  made  is  that  the  effect 
of  familiarity  with  our  flag,  and  that  the  impression  of 
our  national  consequence  resulting  from  the  frequent 
presence  of  our  squadron  in  Chinese  treaty  ports,  is  ben- 
eficial in  creating  an  American  atmosphere  helpful  to 
American  commerce.  It  is  unpleasant  to  put  it  in  the 
following  form,  but  in  the  end  that  is  what  it  amounts  to 
— it  is  an  admirable  advertisement  of  our  importance, 
commercial  as  well  as  naval. 

However  reasonable  or  unreasonable  this  explanation 
may  be,  there  is  little  doubt  of  the  influence  upon  the 
Oriental  mind  of  ships,  flags,  and  the  material  expression 
of  masterfulness  in  the  world.  It  is  quite  as  cheap  for  the 
American  government  to  keep  its  ships  cruising  from 
Chinese  port  to  Chinese  port  as  it  is  to  keep  them  any- 
where else.  They  would  thus  be  on  the  seas  of  the  great 
world  movement  of  the  future  —  even  of  the  present. 
They  would  be  familiarizing  themselves  with  the  condi- 
tions with  which  America  must  deal ;  and,  by  mere  contact, 
would  each  moment  be  increasing  Chinese  respect  for  our 
power  and  Chinese  confidence  in  our  ability  to  do  things. 
Besides,  if  there  is  to  be  a  fight  between  the  nations,  it 
is  likely  to  begin  in  these  waters.  The  Pacific  will  not 
only  be  the  theatre  of  the  great  commerce  of  the  future, 
but  of  the  wars  of  the  future,  too.  And  while  we  want 
no  war,  and  no  part  in  any  war,  we  must  be  able  to 
protect  our  own,  and  increase  it. 

Li  Hung  Chang  has  been  heralded  to  the  world  as  a 
great  statesman.  He  was  not  such.  The  writer  could 
wish  that  the  scope  of  this  chapter  permitted  a  review  of 
this  remarkable  personality.  But  this  much  may  be  said, 
that  Li  Hung  Chang  was  a  very  great  business -man. 

192 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

In  a  conversation  with  him,  held  more  than  four  years 
ago,  he  suggested  (after  going  through  his  customary 
talk  to  Americans  about  the  admission  of  Chinese  into  the 
United  States),  upon  being  requested  to  give  his  honest 
views  as  to  some  practical  and  definite  method  of  increas- 
ing American  trade,  that  the  two  comer-stones  of  Ameri- 
can commercial  influence  in  China  would  be  a  great  bank- 
ing establishment  and  two  or  three,  or  even  one,  powerful 
American  trading  house.  "The  English,"  said  he,  "have 
the  great  firms  of  Jardin,  Metheson  &  Co.  and  Butterfield 
&  Svvire.  They  have  the  Hong-Kong  and  Shanghai  Bank- 
ing Corporation  and  the  Chartered  Bank.  Their  great 
commercial  firms  own  their  own  lines  of  ships ;  they  have 
their  own  commercial  buildings  at  every  port;  they  have 
their  system  of  compradors  reduced  to  a  science.  It  is 
these  agencies  that  have  helped  England  in  China  more 
than  all  her  diplomatic  negotiations,  which  have  been 
neither  clever  nor  brilliant. 

"The  German  understands  this  a  good  deal  better  than 
do  the  English  to-day.  In  fact,  the  English  seem  to  be 
forgetting  all  they  ever  learned.  If  there  could  be  an 
American  trading  compan}'  with  ten,  twenty,  or  even 
fifty  million  dollars  of  capital,  owning  its  own  ships,  flying 
the  American  flag,  and  capable  of  immense  purchases, 
you  would  see  American  trade  grow  in  a  way  that  would 
astonish  you.  Then,  too,  no  diplomatic  demand  of  the 
American  government  is  ever  backed  up  by  any  cash 
proposition,  whereas  England  has  her  banking  corpora- 
tions, and  so  have  Germany  and  Russia,  immediately  on 
the  spot. 

"If  you  Americans  expect  to  get  a  large  share  of 
Chinese  trade  you  can't  get  it  by  talk;  you  have  got  to 
go  after  it." 

Thus  Li  Hung  Chang  had  grasped  with  clearness  the 
commercial  advantages  to  a  nation  which  flow  from  great 
aggregations  of  capital.  Indeed,  one  cannot  see  clearly 
how  we  are  to  keep  pace  with  the  growing  influence  of 

X3  IQ3 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Germany,  with  her  commercial  methods,  heavily  backed 
by  capital  and  brilliantly  supported  by  her  government, 
unless  there  shall  be  two  or  three  enormous  American 
concerns  engaged  in  competition.  All  the  trade  we  have 
in  China  we  owe  to  location,  to  the  better  quality  and 
cheaper  prices  of  our  goods,  and  to  the  unsupported  enter- 
prise of  our  plucky  American  merchants  in  the  Orient. 
But  this  will  not  suffice.  Our  goods  must  be  pushed; 
Chinamen  must  know  about  them;  they  must  wear  our 
cottons,  taste  our  flour,  smoke  our  tobacco.  This  is  a 
matter  of  extraordinary  expense. 

Very  practical  methods,  indeed,  must  be  resorted  to 
in  selling  foreign  goods  in  China.  The  Chinaman's  de- 
mand for  nearly  all  our  products  is  from  an  acquired  taste, 
like  our  desire  for  tomatoes.  You  must  get  him  used  to 
eating  American  flour.  When  you  have  accomplished 
this  you  have  created  a  constant  and  increasing  demand 
for  that  staple  food  product.  A  few  years  ago  no  Ameri- 
can fllour  was  sold  in  China.  Gradually,  however,  flour 
bread  began  to  be  eaten  by  some  of  the  richer  merchants 
who  had  travelled  abroad.  Then  the  compradors  took 
it  up.  Then  it  occurred  to  some  mill-owners  in  America 
that  if  these  Chinamen  liked  their  flour  the  people  them- 
selves would  like  it,  and  two  intelhgent  agents  took  the 
matter  up. 

The  result  is  that  the  trade  in  American  flour  has  now 
reached  such  a  volume  in  Hong-Kong  that  it  requires  ship- 
load after  shipload  each  year  to  satisfy  it,  and  this  de- 
mand is  spreading  steadily  and  rapidly,  but  with  a  snail's 
pace  compared  with  the  progress  it  might  make  if  pushed 
by  great  capital  and  comprehensive  organizing  ability  and 
by  broad  and  far-seeing  business  methods.  After  many 
conversations  with  commercial  men,  and  after  mature 
thought,  it  is  believed  that  in  ten  years  Chinese  demand 
for  American  flour  alone  could  be  made  to  reach  the 
total  of  thirty  million  dollars,  or  more  than  double  the 
amount  of  our  entire  exportation  to  China  proper  at 

194 


THE    RUSvSIAN    ADVANCE 

present  (not  including  Hong-Kong  and  Manchuria).  It 
will  not  reach  ten  millions  probably,  but  if  we  should 
engage  in  Chinese  trade  earnestly  it  could  be  driven  to 
the  limit  named. 

An  American  tobacco  company  has  illustrated  the 
rapidity  with  which  an  Oriental  demand  may  be  created 
and  the  success  with  which  the  supply  of  that  demand 
may  be  monopolized.  This  corporation  decided  to  enter 
the  Oriental  field.  It  put  in  charge  a  general  representa- 
tive in  love  with  his  work.  Samples  of  the  company's 
goods  were  judiciously  distributed.  One  whiff  by  a 
Chinaman  was  enough;  he  became  familiar  with  that 
company's  brand  ("chop"  he  called  it),  purchased  it 
almost  exclusively,  told  his  friends  about  it,  and  they 
repeated  the  process  until  one  of  the  flourishing  branches 
of  the  company's  foreign  trade  is  its  Chinese  trade. 

There  is  also  a  growing  demand  for  American  condensed 
milk,  and  thereby  hangs  a  tale  illustrative  of  Chinese 
character.  The  Chinaman  becomes  accustomed  to  a  cer- 
tain brand.  He  knows  the  can  or  package  by  the  picture 
on  it,  and  the  characters  painted  there  —  its  "chop." 
When  he  acquires  a  taste  for  a  brand,  that  is  the  brand 
he  wants.  A  certain  American  firm  had  fostered  Chinese 
trade  in  condensed  milk  until  a  considerable  demand  was 
created  in  the  district  of  which  a  certain  treaty  port 
is  the  centre.  A  new  management  came  into  control  of 
the  business.  At  its  head  was  a  young  man  who  did  not 
admire  the  artistic  proportions  and  the  general  get-up 
of  the  label.  "We  must  have  something  neater,  more 
modest,"  said  he,  and  a  very  becoming  label  was  substi- 
tuted for  the  old  one.  In  a  single  month  the  Chinese  de- 
mand for  that  article  fell  away  more  than  fifty  per  cent., 
and  in  three  months  it  was  practically  non-existent.  The 
old  label  was  replaced,  and  again  the  demand  sprang  up. 
The  point  is  that  the  Chinaman  did  not  understand  that 
the  new  label  represented  the  same  milk  which  he  had 
become  used  to.     The  firm  would  have  been  compelled 

195 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

to  go  through  the  original  process  of  creating  a  new  de- 
mand for  the  same  brand  on  account  of  the  new  label. 

Chinese  character  is  full  of  these  idiosyncrasies,  and 
they  must  be  noted  and  studied  by  those  who  expect  to 
sell  goods  to  the  Chinese.  And  the  study  is  very  well 
worth  while.  People  may  talk  about  Chinese  frugality 
and  self-denial  all  they  please,  but  the  Chinaman  in- 
dulges himself  more  unrestrainedly  than  is  generally  be- 
lieved. He  has  seen  so  many  centuries  pass;  he  knows 
that  so  many  uncountable  myriads  of  milHons  have  died; 
he  realizes,  to  borrow  a  phrase,  "that  we  are  going  through 
life  for  the  last  time  " ;  and  so  he  ministers  to  his  physical 
senses.  Therefore,  when  you  capture  his  desire  you  have 
captured  his  pocket  -  book.  The  Chinaman  is  bent  on 
satisfying  his  appetite,  and  he  likes  good  things.  Ameri- 
can meats,  American  milk,  American  tobacco,  most  of  all 
American  flour,  please  his  palate.  But  he  is  not  going 
to  learn  about  our  products  by  intuition,  or  visions,  or 
dreams.  He  has  got  to  learn  about  them  by  his  physical 
senses.  Therefore,  they  must  be  brought  to  his  door  and 
placed  on  his  table.  The  Chinaman  is  a  fish  that  jumps 
at  no  metal  fly.     The  only  bait  he  seizes  is  the  real  thing. 

Therefore,  American  merchants  ought  to  have  reliable, 
energetic,  tactful  agents  in  China  introducing  their  goods 
in  a  practical  way.  There  is  one  medical  firm  whose 
patent  preparations  are  known  all  over  the  United  States. 
It  has  built  up  a  considerable  demand  for  its  medicines 
in  the  limited  area  connected  with  a  certain  port;  but 
the  agent  who  has  created  the  demand  is  a  man  of  capac- 
ity, patience,  resource,  tirelessness. 

In  default  of  an  American  trading  company  of  the 
capital  and  size  which  the  Chinese  commercial  field  de- 
mands, it  might  be  well  for  American  merchants  to  form 
a  pool  and  pay  very  liberally  for  the  introduction  of  one 
another's  goods  throughout  the  Orient,  by  giving  away 
samples  until  the  demand  is  created,  and  then  they  should 
be  prepared  to  fill  that  demand  on  the  spot.     It  would  be 

196 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  cheapest  form  of  advertising,  and  the  result  would 
be  more  permanent  than  advertising  is  in  America.  In- 
deed, a  combination  of  American  manufacturers  already 
uses  this  plan,  but  in  a  hard-and-fast,  stiff,  unelastic,  and 
unpractical  way.  There  is  at  Shanghai  an  American 
warehouse,  and,  in  the  best  quarter  of  the  town,  a  large 
American  show-room  for  the  display  of  American  manu- 
factured articles  like  machinery,  glass,  tools,  and  tiles. 

This  is  the  beginning  of  a  movement  in  the  right 
direction.  If  it  could  be  supplemented  by  selling  de- 
partments, competent  to  fill  any  reasonably  large  orders 
on  the  spot,  and  in  charge  of  thoroughly  trustworthy 
selling  agents,  whose  exclusive  business  would  be  the 
introduction  and  sale  of  goods  without  any  other  con- 
nection whatever,  the  warehouse  and  show-room  would 
show  some  returns.  Very  little  result  can  be  expected 
from  the  present  awkward  arrangement,  however.  China- 
men are  too  busily  sought  out  by  Germans,  and  even 
by  the  English,  and  most  of  all  by  the  gallant  little 
company  of  American  merchants  on  the  spot,  to  spend 
their  time  going  around  to  the  store-room  to  look  admir- 
ingly on  wares  and  then  order  on  their  own  initiative. 

The  necessity  is  emphasized  for  reliable  men,  because 
experience  has  developed  the  fact  that  there  are  com- 
mercial adventurers  in  the  Far  East,  men  of  real  ability, 
of  singular  glibness  of  tongue  and  plausibility  of  manner, 
who,  when  given  these  commercial  agencies,  do  nothing 
but  draw  the  salary  and  finally  decamp  with  the  proceeds 
of  the  investment.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  in  the 
Far  East  numbers  of  competent,  trustworthy,  devoted 
men,  thoroughly  in  love  with  their  work,  and  that  number 
is  increasing. 

It  would  pay  the  associated  producers  of  the  United 
States  to  send  three  or  four  bright  young  men  into  the 
Far  East  for  the  purpose  of  studying  commercial  methods. 
These  men  should  be  chosen  with  care.  The  German 
government  sent  an  industrial  and  commercial  commission 

197 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

to  study  Oriental  commercial  conditions.  Our  govern- 
ment might  well  do  likewise;  but,  independently  of  that, 
the  manufacturers  and  producers  should  send  their  own 
men.  The  government  commission  should  have  to  do 
with  making  the  government  and  people  of  the  United 
States  familiar  with  the  people  and  conditions  of  the  Far 
East  so  that  a  steady  national  policy  might  be  evolved. 
The  business -men's  commission  should  have  sole  refer- 
ence to  the  sheer  question  of  selling.  It  should  learn 
how  the  Chinese  desire  their  goods  prepared.  It  should 
seek  new  sources  of  demand  and  trade. 

China  is  a  better  field  for  this  than  Europe,  because 
Europe's  market  is  pretty  well  congested  now,  and  its 
own  producers  are  straining  every  nerve  to  supply,  ex- 
clusively, its  own  demands.  Nothing  but  our  enormous 
aggregations  of  producing  capital  enable  us  to  keep  the 
sale  of  American  goods  in  that  market  from  rapidly  de- 
creasing. But  China  is  a  virgin  market.  Its  exploita- 
tion has  not  even  yet  been  begun,  and  an  intelligent,  prac- 
tical, patient  (let  me  repeat,  patient,  patient,  patient) 
commission  sent  to  China  by  the  producers  of  manufact- 
ures; another  one,  of  like  character,  sent  by  our  com- 
bined producers  of  bread-stuffs;  and,  third,  one  sent  by 
the  combined  producers  of  cotton  goods,  would  discover 
fields  for  the  sale  of  our  merchandise  which  would  surprise 
Americans  and  surprise  the  Chinamen,  too.  As  has  been 
pointed  out,  the  Chinaman  individually  is  a  very  intel- 
ligent man.  Even  his  critics  say  that  in  character  he 
is  a  victim  of  but  two  degenerating  things — individual 
selfishness  and  a  sort  of  paralysis  which  comes  from  his 
worship  of  precedent. 

Mr.  Parsons  gives  an  instance  in  his  admirable  little 
book  which  illustrates  this  latter  quality  with  surprising 
distinctness.  He  tells  of  a  bridge,  high  and  round,  which 
was  erected  some  hundreds  of  years  ago  over  what  was 
then  a  stream.  But  long  since,  hundreds  of  years  per- 
haps, that  stream  ceased  to  flow.     Time  has  filled  in  its 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

bed,  which  is  now  on  the  level  with  the  surrounding 
country,  and  vegetation  grows  upon  it.  But  the  road 
still  runs  over  the  bridge,  and  Chinamen,  carrying  heavy 
burdens  on  their  backs,  instead  of  walking  past  the  bridge, 
continue  to  toil  up  and  down  it  simply  because  their 
fathers  did  the  same  thing.  Such  peculiarities  of  Chi- 
nese character  must  be  studied,  and  we  must  act  accord- 
ingly. 

One  reason  for  the  decline  of  British  sales  to  the  Chinese, 
which  the  inquirer  hears  repeated  over  and  over  again, 
is  that  the  British  put  up  their  goods  the  way  the  British 
want  them,  and  not  the  way  the  Chinaman  wants  them; 
that  the  English  merchant  says  in  effect  to  the  Chinaman  : 
"This  is  the  way  I  like  to  put  up  goods.  Take  them  or 
leave  them."  The  German  doesn't  do  anything  of  the 
kind.  He  caters  to  Chinese  desires,  therefore  he  gets 
Chinese  trade.  So  does  the  Japanese  merchant.  A  pres- 
ent example  is  in  point.  Large  bales  are  difficult  to 
transport  into  the  mountainous  interior  of  Korea  The 
British  put  up  in  large  bales  certain  goods  sold  there. 
Nevertheless,  the  British  have  until  quite  recently  sup- 
plied most  of  the  Korean  demand,  for  the  reason  that 
no  one  else  competed  with  them,  and  that,  trade  once 
established,  its  very  inertia  helps  to  continue  it.  But  the 
Japanese  saw  their  advantage,  put  up  Japanese  goods 
in  smaller  bales,  and  are  therefore  taking  the  trade  of 
Korea  away  from  England.  Such  examples  should  be 
lessons  to  American  enterprise. 

Again,  the  simpler  items  of  Chinese  commerce  must 
receive  serious  and  painstaking  attention.  A  certain  high 
British  official  in  the  Far  East  was  talking  about  the 
growth  of  German  trade.  "Oh,"  said  he,  "it  is  'muck- 
and-tuck'  trade."  By  "muck-and-tuck  trade"  he  meant 
clocks,  pins,  buttons — the  minutiae  of  commerce.  When 
it  was  pointed  out  to  him  that  this  was  the  seed  of  all 
commerce;  that  from  such  little  germs  of  trade  greater 
trade  is  bound  to  grow ;  that  these  small  articles  make  the 

199 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Chinese  familiar  with  German  goods,  German  trade,  and 
the  German  name,  he  appeared  unable  to  appreciate  that 
commercial  point.  At  an  official  dinner  given  that  very- 
evening  another  British  functionary,  in  talking  over  this 
same  thing,  said: 

"Oh,  well,  England  has  got  along  very  well  in  the  past, 
and  she  will  get  along  very  well  in  the  future.  It  is  Eng- 
land, you  know.     Nothing  can  down  England!" 

It  was  the  spirit  of  self-satisfaction,  which  is  the  root 
of  all  unprogressiveness.  No  new  methods  for  England; 
no  change  of  conditions  for  English  merchants;  no  prog- 
ress, in  short,  for  England.  She  had  captured  the  trade 
in  the  manner  pointed  out  in  the  chapter  on  Germany's 
activities  in  China,  and  she  seems  to  have  forgotten  that 
the  conditions  which  gave  her  that  trade  have  passed  away. 
To-day  is  not  yesterday,  even  if  the  same  sun  does  shine. 
The  world  moves.  On  an  excursion  among  the  Chinese 
shops  at  Hong-Kong  it  was  found  that,  though  most  of 
the  cloths  were  English,  the  buttons  were  German,  the 
needles  were  German,  the  pins  were  German,  the  clocks 
were  German,  and  so  on.  All  of  them  ought  to  be 
American. 

By  the  same  token,  all  of  them  ought  to  be  cheap. 
Peoples  of  the  Far  East  are  not  looking  for  high-grade 
money.  They  insist  on  silver.  They  insist  upon  the 
copper  "cash,"  a  money  made  of  hollow  disks  of  copper, 
of  which  it  takes  hundreds,  and  in  one  or  two  provinces 
almost  a  thousand,  to  equal  a  dollar.  Similarly,  they  in- 
sist on  cheap  goods.  They  will  continue  to  insist  on  them 
until  they  are  raised  to  a  commercial  and  industrial  civili- 
zation approaching  American  and  European  conditions. 

After  such  commissions  (and  it  is  insisted  that  there 
should  be  one  for  each  great  industry — each  commission 
would  find  its  hands  full  and  its  time  entirely  occupied) 
there  ought  to  be  a  pooling  of  each  great  group  of  Ameri- 
can industries,  and  then  the  very  best  representative 
that  that  industry  can  find  should  be  sent  permanently 

200 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

to  China  and  paid  enough  to  justify  him  in  exiling  him- 
self to  the  Orient  in  the  interest  of  his  employers  and 
American  commerce.  But  if  we  have  not  yet  advanced 
so  far  in  co-operative  civilization  that  our  manufacturers 
of  tools,  machinery,  implements,  and  the  like  in  one 
group,  our  manufacturers  of  cotton  goods  in  another 
group,  our  manufacturers  of  food  products  in  another 
group,  cannot  see  their  way  clear  to  the  pooling  arrange- 
ment, let  each  great  house  that  sees  the  advantages  of  this 
market  send  at  its  own  expense  a  highly  paid  representa- 
tive to  China  to  exploit  its  own  products.  I  repeat  that 
expression — a  highly  paid  representative.  You  had  better 
send  nobody  at  all  than  send  some  person  who  has  not 
been  successful  here,  or  a  picked-up,  untried,  untested, 
and  unknown,  or  too  well-known,  individual  who  is  al- 
ready in  the  Far  East.  You  have  got  to  send  the  very 
best  man  you  can  find,  the  most  comprehensive  and 
alert  intellect,  the  most  tactful  in  disposition,  the  most 
engaging  in  personality,  and,  above  all,  the  most  patient, 
painstaking,  and  industrious.  Such  a  person  will  prove 
an  investment  which  will  pay  increasing  dividends. 

With  the  increase  of  trade  and  the  growth  of  general 
knowledge  and  enlightenment  as  to  Oriental  conditions, 
which  would  come  from  following  this  course,  new  and 
improved  methods  would  constantly  suggest  themselves 
as  new  branches  of  wheat  stool  out  from  the  original 
grain ;  and  it  would  not  be  a  great  many  years  before 
America  would  be  the  largest  supplier  of  Chinese  trade, 
and  America  the  first  power  in  Oriental  waters.  It  is 
the  neglected  peoples  and  the  neglected  markets  to  which 
we  must  look  in  the  future.  When  you  reflect  that  Ger- 
many, including  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  has  upward  of  fifty 
millions  of  people,  and  that  we  sell  her  nearly  one  hundred 
and  ninety  million  dollars'  worth  of  goods  every  year; 
that  the  United  Kingdom  has  only  forty  millions  of  people, 
and  that  we  sell  it  over  five  hundred  and  thirty  million 
dollars'  worth  of  goods  every  year;  that  France  has  less 

20 1 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

than  forty  millions  of  people,  and  that  we  sell  her  nearly 
eighty-five  million  dollars'  worth  of  goods  every  year,  and 
then  reflect  that  China  has  four  hundred  million  people, 
and  that  we  sell  her  not  more  than  twenty-five  million 
dollars'  worth  of  goods,  upon  the  face  of  the  returns  (al- 
though by  counting  American  goods  which  go  to  China 
by  way  of  London  and  Japan,  and  by  other  indirect  routes, 
we  probably  sell  her  forty  millions),  a  child  can  see  the 
possibilities  of  American  trade  expansion  in  China. 

It  has  been  repeated  so  many  times  that  it  is  accepted 
as  a  truism  that  the  first  and  last  requisite  for  the  in- 
crease of  American  trade  in  China  is  the  maintenance  of 
the  open  door.  The  open  door  means  only  that  the  goods 
of  all  nations  shall  have  free  access  to  the  treaty  ports  of 
China  upon  the  same  terms.  It  must  be  remembered ,  how- 
ever, that  treaty  ports  did  not  always  exist,  and  that,  as 
M.  Leroy-Beaulieu  points  out,  they  have  all  or  nearly 
all  been  secured  by  armed  conflict;  in  short,  that,  so  far 
as  China's  door  is  open,  it  has  been  forced  open  by  bay- 
onets. 

It  is  quite  possible  that  any  further  opening  of  the  door 
(that  is,  a  multiplying  of  treaty  ports,  or  any  aggressive 
trade  concessions  to  the  world)  will  be  secured  by  the 
same  method,  or  by  the  fear  of  it.  Of  course,  there  is  a 
possibility  that  a  new  order  of  things  will  develop  itself 
in  China,  that  when  the  new  Emperor  takes  in  his  hands 
the  reins  of  government  he  will  grant  these  concessions 
to  the  rest  of  the  world,  upon  considerations  of  wise 
policy  and  enlightened  statesmanship.  It  is  a  beautiful 
hope,  and  every  student  of  the  world  prays  for  its  realiza- 
tion.    But  the  practical  man  must  deal  with  facts. 

As  important  as  is  the  maintenance  of  the  open  door, 
the  extension  of  the  avenues  to  which  that  door  leads  is, 
at  least,  equally  important.  If  the  door  is  open  ever  so 
wide,  but  you  can  only  just  get  your  goods  inside  of  it, 
what  does  that  avail  you  ?  That  is  the  condition  of  China 
now.     The  tax  on  goods  taken  into  the  interior,  an  at- 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

tempt  to  abolish  which  has  proved  a  practical  failure, 
prevents  goods  from  going  very  far  from  the  treaty  ports. 
It  is  not  forgotten  that  this  has  been  repeated  many 
times  in  this  volume,  but  it  is  a  fact  so  essential  and  so 
little  known  that  it  will  have  to  be  repeated  a  number 
of  times  more,  and  from  many  different  sources,  in  order 
to  be  thoroughly  appreciated. 

It  is  agreed,  and  is  now  a  law  (so  far  as  such  an  agree- 
ment can  be  called  a  law)  that  one-half  of  the  customs 
tariff  on  foreign  goods  entering  China  shall  be  employed 
in  lieu  of  and  to  replace  all  internal  transportation  tax. 
But  this  has  not  worked  as  a  practical  matter.  To  get 
the  goods  into  the  interior  is  still  a  thing  of  difficulty. 
By  the  interior  is  meant  long  distances  into  the  interior. 
Of  course,  treaty  ports  include  not  only  coast  cities,  but 
many  on  the  rivers  as  well;  for  instance,  Hankow,  eight 
hundred  miles  up  the  Yang-tse-Kiang,  is  a  treaty  port. 
But  foreign  goods  circulate  in  appreciable  quantities  only 
a  short  distance,  comparatively  speaking,  from  these 
treaty  ports. 

With  the  privilege  of  free  and  unvexed  transportation 
of  foreign  goods  into  the  interior  would  come  another 
practical  difficulty,  that  of  finding  a  method  of  transpor- 
tation. Merchandise  must  now  be  borne  on  the  backs 
of  coolies,  in  wheelbarrows,  and  on  horses,  or  in  some 
places  by  carts.  This  will  not  do;  that  is  plain.  Modern 
commerce  will  never  be  satisfied  with  such  antique 
methods.  Roads  will  have  to  be  built — first  railroads,  and 
then,  branching  out  from  these,  lines  of  highways  for 
wagons.  This  is  a  practical  problem  worth  while — quite 
as  important  as  the  open  door.  So  far  as  the  open  door 
is  concerned,  the  world  may  as  well  understand  that  it 
is  not  to  be  kept  open  by  talk  nor  by  communications. 
It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  it  is  being  kept 
open  now  more  by  the  jealousies  of  the  aggressive  powers 
than  by  any  agreement. 

When  these  jealousies  are  removed,  or  when  a  common 

203 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVAxNCE 

agreement  of  the  aggressive  powers  is  reached,  or  when 
the  physical  preponderance  of  Russia,  Germany,  or  France 
becomes  so  great  that  the  dominant  country  can  do  what 
it  wishes  within  its  sphere,  the  door  cannot  be  kept  open, 
no  matter  how  much  statesmen  "communicate."  The 
writer  has  talked  with  large  numbers  of  residents  of  the 
Far  East  and  with  many  students  of  the  Far  Eastern 
question,  and  all  are  agreed  that  if  the  partition  of  China 
is  to  be  prevented  something  must  be  done  of  a  defi- 
nite, tangible,  visible,  material  nature.  This  is  a  task 
for  constructive,  practical  statesmanship,  such  as  the 
present  century  does  not  present  in  any  other  direc- 
tion. 

It  is  a  good  thing  for  the  American  people  to  know  this, 
because,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  we  cannot  have  a  na- 
tional policy  except  as  the  people  make  it.  England 
ought  to  take  the  initiative  in  this  matter ;  but  she  may  not. 
This  is  the  opinion  of  Englishmen  in  the  Orient.  Mere 
scoffing  at  Russia  and  Germany  will  not  do.  Mere  excited 
utterances  at  a  dinner-table  or  at  the  social  gathering 
or  in  the  newspaper  will  not  do. 

It  may  be  well,  in  closing  these  chapters  of  digression, 
to  note  something  of  the  exact  statistics  of  our  trade  with 
China  at  present  and  in  the  immediate  past.  In  1898  we 
exported  to  China  $9,992,894  worth  of  merchandise,  of 
which  the  principal  items  were  cotton  goods,  oil,  and  flour; 
in  1900  we  exported  (in  spite  of  the  Boxer  trouble)  $15,- 
259,167  worth,  of  which  the  principal  items  were  the 
same.  In  1898  we  exported  to  Hong-Kong  (all  of  which 
was  consumed  in  China)  $6,265,200  worth  of  merchandise, 
and  in  1900  $8,485,978  worth,  so  that  in  1898  the  United 
States  sold  to  China  directly  (not  including  Hong-Kong) 
some  sixteen  million  dollars'  worth  of  merchandise, 
whereas  in  1900  we  sold  to  China  directly  nearly  twenty- 
four  million  dollars'  worth.  But,  perhaps,  a  third  as 
much  again  as  this  was  sent  to  the  empire  by  way  of 
London  and  Liverpool,  and  perhaps  a  similar  percentage 

204 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

was  exported  by  way  of  Japan.  The  exact  amount  sent 
through  these  last  two  channels  cannot  definitely  be  com- 
puted. Only  an  estimate  can  be  made.  It  is  a  safe  esti- 
mate that  our  exports  to  China,  all  told,  now  aggregate 
§40,000,000  annually. 

This  surprising  increase  of  our  export  trade  is  exhibited 
also  throughout  Oceania  and  the  entire  Far  East.  No 
explanation  of  this  sudden  increase  is  given  such  as  has 
been  offered  for  the  growth  of  German  commerce.  It  is 
fair  to  say  that  something  of  it  is  due  to  the  greater 
familiarity  with  the  American  flag  and  the  American 
people,  throughout  the  Orient,  which  followed  close  upon 
the  Spanish  war.  Countries  are  very  little  different  from 
towns  in  their  commercial  characteristics,  and  a  country 
merchant  knows  that,  if  you  get  the  people  talking  about 
his  store  and  his  goods,  his  trade  at  once  increases.  It  is  a 
practical  point  of  which  the  smallest  as  well  as  the  largest 
merchant  in  this  and  every  country  takes  account.  It 
must  not  be  forgotten  in  our  larger  deaHngs  with  peoples. 
If  our  trade  were  pushed  in  an  aggressive,  material,  and 
visible  way,  its  increase  would  surprise  the  most  sanguine. 
The  writer  has  feared  to  make  statements  as  strong  as  the 
facts  themselves  warrant.  Because  of  our  unfamiliarity 
with  the  whole  question  it  has  been  feared  that  a  con- 
servative public  would  regard  them  as  overstatements,  so 
that  the  statements  here  made  have  been  measured  with 
care,  and  even  reduced  from  their  just  and  proper  pro- 
portions. 

A  great  American  manufacturer  recently  said:  "Our 
firm  is  going  to  invade  the  Asiatic  field.  Some  of  our 
directors  pointed  out  what  seemed  to  be  the  folly  of  this, 
because  our  recent  trade  with  that  region  of  the  earth 
is  so  inconsiderable,  compared  with  our  trade  with  Europe, 
for  example.  Therefore,  these  objecting  directors  said, 
'Why  waste  time  on  this  little  market,  when  a  great 
market  is  at  our  hands?'  But  I  answered  them  that  the 
Asiatic  market  is  comparatively  a  new  one — virgin  soil, 

205 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

as  it  were — and  that  what  we  must  look  for  is  not  old 
markets,  but  new  markets." 

That  was  common-sense,  was  it  not?  When  we  have 
occupied  a  market,  or  get  under  good  headway  in  it,  the 
progressive  and  sensible  thing  to  do  is  to  look  into  the 
next  and  nearest  market,  and  set  out  to  exploit  that. 
It  is  observed  that  the  large  mine-owners  of  our  Western 
States  were  never  content  with  the  ownership  of  one 
mine.  When  the  successful  mine-owner  had  that  under 
his  control  and  in  thorough  working  order,  he  sent  his 
prospectors  in  every  direction  to  search  out  new  ones. 
He  simply  applied  common-sense  and  energy  to  a  practical 
situation. 

Consider  Russia,  for  example.  We  sell  her  between 
twenty  and  twenty-five  million  dollars'  worth  of  mer- 
chandise every  year.  We  might  as  well  sell  her  eighty 
or  one  hundred  milhon  dollars'  worth  annually.  The  trade 
is  ours  for  the  asking  and  the  going  after.  Our  competi- 
tors are  asking  for  it  and  going  after  it.  They  will  get 
it,  too,  unless  we  act  with  skill  and  address.  Germany, 
for  example,  sells  Russia  considerably  more  than  one 
hundred  milHon  dollars'  worth  of  merchandise  every 
year.  Even  England  sells  Russia  nearly  seventy  milHon 
dollars'  worth  of  mercliandise  annually.  Russia  would 
prefer  to  buy  from  us,  because  we  are  not  in  her  way 
anywhere,  and  because  she  has  political  animosities  of  an 
historic  and  permanent  character  against  every  one  of 
our  competitors.  Then  there  is  Asiatic  Russia,  chiefly 
Siberia.  Our  sales  to  her  are  inconsiderable.  Yet  all  east- 
em  Siberia,  as  far  as  Irkutsk,  is  our  natural  market.  The 
Russian  occupation  of  Manchuria  (if  Russia  continues  to 
let  our  goods  in  free  and  does  not  differentiate  against  us 
on  her  railroad  rates)  will  double  our  trade  there. 

Here,  then,  are  virgin  markets.  Why  not  have  them? 
The  writer  calls  the  particular  attention  of  every  manu- 
facturer and  of  every  producer  of  bread  -  stuffs  in  the 
United  States  to  these  m.arkets.     Everybody  who  gives 

206 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

thought  to  our  industrial  situation  knows  that  we  are  in 
danger  of  congestion  of  products  at  no  distant  date. 
What  our  producers  must  look  for  and  what  American 
statesmen  must  give  attention  to  is  an  outlet  to  prevent 
this  congestion.  Here  are  markets  which  constitute  such 
outlets.  Let  us  occupy  them.  But  be  it  remembered 
that  they  are  not  to  be  occupied  by  polite  notes  or 
banquet  speeches.  They  have  got  to  be  occupied  by 
ships,  commercial  agents,  modem  methods,  the  expendi- 
ture of  money,  and  the  resourceful  vigilance  of  a  firm  and 
comprehensive  business  policy. 

Whether  we  want  it  that  way  or  not,  we  are  thrust 
out  upon  the  waters  and  into  the  midst  of  the  peoples 
of  the  world.  Let  us  address  ourselves  to  the  situation 
and  acquit  ourselves  accordingly;  and  that  means  to 
adapt  ourselves  to  growing  and  changing  conditions. 
American  traditions  and  American  characteristics  are 
repeatedly  referred  to;  and  it  is  said  that  " self-govern- 
ment"  and  "non-interference"  and  many  other  excel- 
lent things  are  American  characteristics;  and  so  they  are. 
But  the  American  characteristic  is  adaptability.  We 
ought  to  adapt  ourselves,  and  will,  to  the  world's  geog- 
raphy, and  to  our  trade  as  influenced  by  that. 


XV 

Siberia:  the  highway  of  Russian  advance 

THE  Russian  is  on  the  Asiatic  shores  of  the  Pacific 
then,  indeed.  His  banks,  his  railways,  and  his  shops, 
his  business  houses,  his  vessels  of  war,  his  sotnias  of 
Cossacks,  and  his  parks  of  artillery,  his  fortifications  built 
for  enduring  purposes,  his  civil  administrators,  his  mil- 
itary commanders,  his  schools  and  universities  for  teach- 
ing Oriental  tongues,  all  these  in  a  visible  way  have  left 
the  world  no  longer  any  doubt  of  his  tangible,  substantial, 
permanent  presence.  All  the  world  is  talking  about  him 
therefore.  And  now  that  we  have  glanced  at  the  index 
of  the  volume  of  his  activities  and  achievements  in  his 
most  recent  fields  of  operation,  let  us,  with  judicial  vision, 
pass  through  Siberia,  that  other  land  which  the  Slav  is 
fashioning  for  the  home  of  his  future  millions.  And  as 
our  interest  increases,  let  us  go  further  back  to  the  original 
fountain  whence  this  flood  of  human  power  and  purpose 
pours  forth  steadily  and  in  ever-swelling  streams.  And, 
that  what  we  see  and  hear  may  be  the  truth  as  it  is,  let 
us  go  without  prejudice  on  the  one  hand  or  prepossession 
on  the  other.  Let  us  go  with  the  determination  to 
neither  laud  nor  vilify,  neither  to  praise  nor  blame  un- 
justly. Let  us,  in  short,  proceed  as  we  have  through 
Manchuria  and  China,  holding  no  brief  for  nor  against  the 
Muscovite,  and  influenced  by  no  spirit  of  advocacy  favor- 
able or  adverse  to  any  phase  of  his  character  or  civihza- 
tion,  but  merely  as  earnest  searchers  for  the  truth,  what- 
ever the  truth  may  prove  to  be. 

Let  no  traveller  who  is  merely  going  about  the  world 

208 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

for  sight-seeing  or  pleasure  go  through  Siberia.  Com- 
paratively, there  is  nothing  for  him  to  see.  Only  two 
classes  of  persons  should  make  the  trans-Siberian  trip: 
first,  men  and  women  engaged  in  business,  and  to  whom 
a  quick  journey  from  Europe  to  Asia  is  highly  desirable ; 
and,  second,  serious,  careful  students  who  are  trying  to 
get  some  idea  of  that  increasing  force  in  contemporary 
affairs,  the  Russian  people.  All  others  had  better  depend 
upon  the  faithful  record  by  other  travellers  of  what  may 
be  seen  in  Siberia  and  Manchuria,  and  their  interpretation 
thereof,  than  to  go  through  what  must  in  any  event  be  a 
dull  monotony,  and  what,  if  they  mean  to  learn  any- 
thing, must  be  downright  hard  work. 

Two  influences  operate  to  deflect  the  judgment  of  the 
American,  the  English,  and  the  German  traveller  through 
Siberia.  The  first  is  that  all  of  us  have  had  it  fixed  upon 
our  minds  that  Siberia  is  the  land  of  terror,  the  region  of 
exile,  the  domain  of  doom.  We  have  been  told  that  it 
was  a  snowy  desert  where  wander  the  men  and  women 
whom  Russian  oppressors  drove  from  their  homes.  It 
has  been  pictured  to  us  as  a  country  of  prisons,  a  waste 
peopled  by  destroying  wolves  and  sentinelled  by  grim  and 
savage  Cossacks,  the  agents  of  a  secret,  ruthless,  and  terri- 
ble power.  For  years  popular  plays  have  pictured  the 
infamy  of  this  barren  world  of  outcasts ;  and  at  the  present 
moment  more  than  one  melodrama,  played  at  theatres 
patronized  by  the  masses  of  the  people,  portrays  the 
awful  tyranny  of  the  Czar  and  the  bitter  lot  of  his  un- 
fortunate subjects  who  people  that  dreadful  land  called 
Siberia. 

Even  the  best-informed  traveller  enters  Siberia  with 
the  above  impression  constituting  his  subconscious  view- 
point. Fortify  ourselves  as  we  will  with  the  tolerance  of 
the  scientist  and  the  impartiality  of  the  judicial  mind,  we 
find  the  feelings  formed  in  our  childhood  days  by  shud- 
dering tales  of  this  Slav  inferno  asserting  themselves. 
We  have  crossed  the  Urals,  and  Siberia  proper  is  before 
14  209 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

VIS.  Now,  therefore,  for  the  chain  -  gang,  now  for  the 
knout,  now  for  the  stench,  degradation,  and  death  of  those 
pens  of  incarceration  where  Russia  herds  her  rejected  till 
they  go  mad  or  expire. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  American,  German,  or  English- 
man comes  suddenly  into  this  territory  from  his  own  land. 
And  his  land  is  thickly  settled,  highly  developed,  and 
organized  up  to  the  ideals  of  modern  civihzation.  He 
comes  from  countries  of  quick  despatch,  of  frequent  towns, 
of  mammoth  cities,  of  a  perfected  commerce,  whose  com- 
plexity has  eliminated  non-essentials,  and  is  still  eliminat- 
ing them.  He  comes  from  a  land  of  comforts,  a  place 
where  the  luxuries  of  a  century  ago  are  the  common  ne- 
cessities of  to-day. 

On  the  one  hand,  therefore,  Siberia  is,  in  contrast  to 
the  first  of  these  influences,  a  surprise  and  delight;  on  the 
other  hand,  and  in  contrast  to  the  conditions  surrounding 
him  in  his  own  home,  he  will  declare  Siberia  to  be  unde- 
veloped, her  people  without  enterprise,  her  commerce 
trivial,  the  processes  of  progress  within  her  scarcely  dis- 
tinguishable, and  her  future  hopeless. 

Against  both  of  these  influences  the  fair-minded  man 
who  visits  Siberia  must  contend.  He  must  take  into  ac- 
count that  Siberian  development  has  only  just  begun. 
He  must  remember  the  racial  characteristics  of  the  Slav. 
He  must  bear  in  mind  the  serious  conditions  of  climate  and 
distance  with  which  the  government  has  had  to  contend. 
Above  all,  he  must  remember  the  Russian  ideal  of  pre- 
serving for  the  Russian  people  themselves  every  foot  of 
territory  which  Russian  blood,  Russian  diplomacy,  and 
Russian  enterprise  have  won  for  the  empire  of  the  Czar. 

"We  are  going  to  a  new  land,  but  it  is  still  Russia," 
said  the  head  of  a  family  of  emigrants  at  one  of  the  regis- 
tration towns  along  the  Siberian  railway. 

"  But  why  not  emigrate  to  America?  There  are  better 
chances  there,"  he  was  asked. 

"  So  there  may  be,  but  we  do  not  care  for  great  chances. 

3IO 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

We  want  to  live  among  our  own  kind  of  people,"  was  the 
answer. 

There  spoke  the  Slav  instinct :  he  must  live  in  his  own 
communities.  He  mingles  with  the  natives  of  Siberia,  and 
even  of  Manchuria,  with  familiarity  and  ease.  Finally  he 
absorbs  them.  And,  without  thinking  about  it,  the  in- 
stinct in  him  would  never  permit  the  Slav  to  go  where  he 
could  not  assimilate  the  people  among  whom  he  lives; 
for  the  Russian  is  the  greatest  absorber  of  other  peoples 
which  the  contemporary  world  contains.  He  not  only 
rules  them,  he  appropriates  them.  They  become  a  part 
of  himself.  A  century  hence  will  see  Finland  as  much 
Russian  as  though  it  were  originally  Muscovite. 

More  than  a  score  of  different  peoples  are  now  under 
the  colors  of  the  Czar;  and,  say  what  we  will  from  our 
western  point  of  view,  they  appear  to  be  as  highly  con- 
tented as  the  people  of  the  more  advanced  countries,  such 
as  Germany  or  Italy,  and  far  more  satisfied  with  their 
conditions  than  are  the  English.  This  is  due,  no  doubt, 
to  the  pecuhar  absorbing  powers  of  the  Slav.  There  are 
about  him  a  somnolence  of  character  and  ease  and  laxity 
of  life  which  suit  the  Asiatic  native,  towards  whom  his 
progress  tends,  and  over  whom  his  dominion  is  extending, 
far  more  than  the  precise  and  blunt  methods  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon. 

Of  course,  the  answer  of  the  emigrant  just  quoted  did 
not  give  the  practical  reasons  for  his  emigration  to  Si- 
beria rather  than  to  America.  It  might  even  be  possible 
that  he  never  heard  of  such  a  place  as  America;  and,  be- 
sides, he  was  going  to  Siberia  because  the  agents  of  the 
government  held  out  to  him  pleasant  prospects  of  life  and 
living  there.  Also,  his  home  in  European  Russia  was 
crowded,  and,  more  likely,  he  had  friends  and  neighbors  in 
Siberia.  But,  above  all,  he  had  actual  help  from  the 
government  itself.  His  transportation  was  furnished 
him,  a  small  sum  of  money  was  given  him,  land  had  been 
assigned  to  the  community  to  which  he  belongs;  for  as 

211 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  Russian  in  Russia  lives  in  communities,  owns  land  by 
communities,  labors  not  as  an  individual,  but  in  com- 
panies, so,  as  a  usual  thing,  he  emigrates  to  Siberia  in 
communities.^ 

Besides  all  this,  the  Russian  emigrant  was  following 
the  lines  of  least  resistance.  He  was  going  over  land  trav- 
elled by  hundreds  of  thousands  of  his  brothers  before 
him.  He  was  proceeding  by  the  modern  railway,  to  be 
sure;  and  yet  it  was  a  beaten  path.  For  decades  before 
a  single  sod  had  been  turned  on  any  Siberian  railway, 
or  indeed  on  any  Russian  railway,  the  Russian  peasant, 
obeying  his  instinct  towards  Asia,  has  been  travelling  on 
foot  towards  this  young  Russian  dominion,  and  there  mak- 
ing his  home.  But  far  more  important  than  all  of  these 
was  the  answer  of  this  Russian  father  of  an  emigrant  fam- 
ily; for  it  revealed  in  a  flash  one  of  the  crowning  char- 
acteristics of  the  Slav — namely,  the  cohesiveness  and 
solidarity  of  his  race. 

Siberia  we  find  to  be  physically  a  continuation  of  the 
Russian  Empire.  The  Ural  Mountains,  which  divide  it 
from  Russia  proper,  are,  as  we  Americans  understand 
mountains,  no  mountains  at  all.  In  comparison  with  our 
Sierras,  or  Canada's  Selkirks,  or  Switzerland's  Alps,  they 
are  hardly  more  than  tree -clad  foot-hills.  From  these 
mountains  to  Lake  Baikal,  Siberia  is  one  vast  plain  of  rich 
monotony.  Locate  on  your  map  the  Siberian  railway, 
and  you  have  the  central  artery  of  productive  Siberia. 
The  land  on  either  side  for  perhaps  two  hundred  miles, 
both  north  and  south,  is  excellent  for  agriculture  and 
grazing;  beyond  this,  on  the  south,  begin  the  sandy  deserts 
of  Central  Asia;  to  the  north,  eight  hundred  to  one  thou- 
sand miles,  are  the  great  gold-fields;  but,  speaking  of  per- 


*  The  government  gives  land  to  the  peasant  emigrant  at  the  rate 
of  forty  acres  for  the  head  of  each  family.  Also,  it  loans  each 
family  thirty  rubles  without  interest,  and,  if  needed,  one  hundred 
rubiee,    Md  the  peasant  is  aever  pressed  for  paymeat. 

21i 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

manent  soil  for  civilization  and  empire,  Siberia  may  be 
said  to  be  confined  to  a  strip  not  over  four  hundred  miles 
wide,  extending  from  Russia  to  Lake  Baikal,  a  distance  of 
about  three  thousand  miles;  and,  too,  there  are  immense 
districts  good  for  agriculture  in  Trans-Baikal  Siberia. 

This  estimate  of  the  productive  area  of  Siberia  is,  to  say 
the  least,  generous,  if  not  exaggerated.  Bohol,  the  high- 
est authority,  estimates  that  the  really  valuable  agricult- 
ural portion  of  Siberia  is  not  over  five  hundred  thousand 
square  miles  in  extent.  Such  an  area,  however,  is  equal 
almost  to  the  entire  Mississippi  Valley.  It  is  thus  seen 
that,  eliminating  the  unproductive  land  of  Siberia,  there 
still  remains  nothing  short  of  an  agricultural  empire  await- 
ing the  plough,  the  reaper,  and  the  thresher.  Cultivated 
and  populated  as  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Iowa  are  popu- 
lated and  cultivated,  this  minimum  agriculturally  rich  por- 
tion of  Siberia  is  capable  of  maintaining  a  population  of 
over  thirty-eight  millions.  Cultivated  and  populated  as 
France  and  Germany  are,  it  will  support  more  than  one 
hundred  and  fourteen  millions. 

And  yet  the  population  of  all  Siberia  does  not  to-day 
exceed  eight  millions.*  Russian  emigration,  hov/ever,  is 
pouring  in  by  the  hundred  thousand  every  year.  The 
agricultural  products  consist  of  everything  that  we  raise 
here  in  the  United  States.  Wheat,  millet,  oats,  barley, 
corn,  and  all  the  cereals  of  the  "north  temperate  zone  are 
produced  in  abundance.  The  agricultural  products  of 
Siberia  are  beyond  the  capacity  of  the  Siberian  railway 
to  transport.  Immense  warehouses,  or,  rather,  sheds, 
have  been  erected  along  the  line  to  shelter  the  piles  of  sacks 
of  grain  awaiting  despatch.  You  may  even  see,  at  certain 
seasons  of  the  year,  great  cords  of  sacks  of  grain  piles 
on  the  ground,  without  cover  or  protection,  except 
canvas  thrown  over  them ;  for  the  capacity  of  the  railway 


'  This  is  merely  an  estimate.     Exact  figures  to   date  are  not 
obtainable. 

213 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

is  already  distanced  by  the  agricultural  productiveness 
of  thinly  populated  and  pooriy  cultivated  Siberia. 

An  idea  of  what  agricultural  Siberia  is  doing  at  the 
present  time  is  given  in  the  following  figures,  which  are 
significant  when  we  remember  the  negligent  and  decidedly 
inferior  methods  of  Russian  agriculture: 

Cereal  Production  in  Siberia  for  1902 

"Wheat.  .  .  .30,796,000  bushels     I     Oats 34,078,000  bushels 

Rye 23,080,000         "         I     Barley....   2,628,000       " 

The  railway  itself  is  not  well  built.  But  such  is  the  care 
taken  with  the  Siberian  express,  on  which  you  are  sure  to 
travel,  that,  unless  you  carefully  observe  and  seek  reliable 
information  to  verify  it,  you  would  never  know  that  you 
were  not  on  an  excellently  constructed  road-bed.  It  is 
the  opinion  of  able  Russian  engineers  that  the  whole  line 
will  have  to  be  rebuilt.  Certainly  the  track  will  have  to 
be  relaid,  to  say  the  very  least.  The  rails  are  absurdly 
light.  The  reason  why  heavier  rails  were  not  laid  in  the 
beginning  was,  first,  that  the  Russians  themselves  did  not 
foresee  the  development  of  traffic  the  rails  would  be  called 
upon  to  bear;  and.  second,  towards  the  end  of  the  enter- 
prise a  desire  for  retrenchment  and  economy  developed 
quite  inconsistent  with  the  generosity  of  the  original  plan 
and  the  lavish  outlay  of  the  early  stages  of  construction. 

Sidings  are  being  constructed  all  along  the  line.  These 
sidings  are,  in  many  instances,  so  long  that  the  observer 
cannot  fail  to  conclude  that  they  are  the  beginnings  of  a 
system  of  double  tracks.  That  the  Siberian  road  will 
have  to  have  double  tracks  within  the  next  two  decades 
seems  to  be  a  matter  of  no  further  doubt.  The  increase  in 
grain  shipments  alone  would  require  this.  A  single  track 
could  be  fairly  well  employed  by  the  shipment  of  emi- 
grants, soldiers,  and  other  passengers.  So  congested  is 
the  traffic  that  emigrant  trains  are  often  side-tracked 
for  a  week,  or  even  more,  at  a  time. 

214 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

This  was  the  condition  in  1901,  when  the  road  extended 
no  further  than  Stretensk,  and  when  all  the  Far  Eastern 
traffic  carried  over  the  line  had  to  be  brought  up  the 
Amur  by  boat  or  by  caravan  across  the  Mongolian  desert. 
Now,  however,  the  road  is  completed  through  to  Port 
Arthur  and  Dalni  on  the  China  Sea;  the  whole  trade  of 
Manchuria  is  transported  over  it,  and  you  may  go  with- 
out change  of  cars  from  either  of  these  Pacific  ports  to 
Moscow  itself.  This  means  ultimately  an  immense  addi- 
tion to  Russia's  Far  Eastern  commerce.  It  means,  too, 
the  gradual  opening  of  the  trade  of  Manchuria. 

Another  road  is  contemplated  right  across  the  Mon- 
golian desert  to  the  very  gates  of  Pekin  itself.  There 
can  be  no  question  that  this  will  be  built.  It  is  said  that 
it  will  be  built*  as  a  matter  of  military  necessity.  But 
there  are  more  reasons  why  it  should  be  built  as  a  com- 
mercial  enterprise. 

Consider  now  the  increased  commerce  that  the  main 
line  must  carry  across  Siberia  when  the  contributions  of 
these  thousands  of  miles  of  feeders  to  the  main  line  have 
been  realized.  Thus  it  may  be  taken  as  a  settled  fact  that 
a  double  track  for  the  Siberian  railway  is  a  certainty  of 
the  future.  How  soon  this  double  track  will  be  laid  is,  of 
course,  a  mere  matter  of  speculation.  If  it  were  any  other 
country  than  Russia  which  controlled  the  enterprise  a 
reasonable  guess  could  be  made.  It  will  be  made  when 
the  Czar  is  convinced  that  the  thing  is  needed,  and  that 
the  condition  of  the  Russian  exchequer  will  permit  its 
building.  Then  an  imperial  order  will  come  forth,  and  the 
double  track  will  be  constructed  and  the  old  track  relaid. 

It  is  not  profitable  to  speculate  too  far  into  the  future, 
and  yet,  at  the  risk  of  injecting  imagination  into  a  narra- 
tive, it  may  be  said  that  a  quarter  of  a  century  will  witness 
not  only  double  tracks  along  the  Siberian  line  itself,  but 
extensive  branches  running  both  north  and  south,  and 
even  perhaps  parallel  hnes  east  and  west,  one  hundred 
miles  or  more,  both  north  and  south  of  the  original  road. 

215 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

The  paralleling  of  the  Union  Pacific  by  the  Northern 
Pacific,  and  paralleling  of  the  Northern  Pacific  by  the 
Great  Northern  in  our  own  country,  must  be  reproduced 
when  Siberia  is  as  thickly  populated  as  the  present  volume 
of  emigrants  to  that  country  and  the  capacities  of  its 
soil  make  it  certain  that  it  will  be. 

In  this  connection  it  is  interesting  to  know  that  all  of 
the  Russian  imperial  railways  (and  the  Czar's  govern- 
ment owns  and  operates  the  large  majority  of  all  the  rail- 
way mileage  of  the  empire)  are  paying  investments, 
excepting  the  Manchurian  line  and  portions  of  the  Si- 
berian line.  Indeed,  it  is  said  on  authority  that  the  net 
income  of  the  Russian  government  from  its  railways  is 
over  one  hundred  million  dollars  a  year.  When  you  con- 
sider the  low  rate  of  freight  and  railway  fare  in  Russia, 
this  fact  is  as  important  as  it  is  interesting.  Over  the 
Siberian  line,  especially,  the  passenger  fare  is  trivial. 

The  towns  along  this  continental  strip  of  territory  are 
similar  and  uninteresting.  Universally  they  are  built 
from  a  mile  to  five  miles  away  from  the  railway.  Also 
in  every  instance  they  are  constructed  of  wood.  And 
again,  uniformly,  they  are  agriculttiral  centres.  They  are 
just  such  towns  as  the  transcontinental  traveller  saw  upon 
our  Western  plains  a  score  of  years  ago,  only  the  Russian 
tov/ns  of  Siberia  are  more  populous,  and  law  and  order 
in  them  are  more  carefully  enforced  than  in  our  similar 
towns  at  a  like  period  of  our  development. 

Some  of  these  towns  are  the  centres  for  emigrant 
distribution.  Such  towns  are  equipped  with  great  build- 
ings for  the  temporary  comfort  of  the  emigrant  peasantry. 
Indeed,  along  the  whole  road,  at  every  station,  large  and 
small,  the  government  has  not  neglected  helpful  and  in- 
deed necessary  devices  to  aid  the  peasant  on  his  long 
journey  to  his  new  home.  For  example,  no  station  is 
without  large  ovens  where  hot  water  awaits  the  emigrant , 
with  which  he  makes  his  necessary  tea.  As  has  been 
stated,  these  emigrants  are  pouring  into  Siberia  at  the 

216 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

rate  of  between  two  hundred  thousand  and  three  hun- 
dred thousand  each  year.  Many  long  trains  of  cars 
hterally  packed  with  Russian  emigrants  were  inspected. 
Ahnost  always  these  peasants,  men,  women,  and  children, 
appeared  to  be  very  healthy  and  highly  vital  creatures, 
indeed.  Not  often  was  sickness  observed.  Where  sick- 
ness occurs  at  any  town  which  is  the  centre  of  emigrant 
distribution,  competent  physicians  are  said  to  be  sta- 
tioned to  relieve  the  suffering,  though  no  personal  in- 
vestigation of  this  statement  was  made. 

In  but  one  instance  were  these  peasant  emigrants  found 
to  be  dissatisfied.  That  instance  occurred  near  a  railway 
station,  midway  between  Khabaroff  and  Vladivostock,  in 
the  Pacific  regions.  Here  the  inhabitants  of  an  entire 
village  from  the  congested  districts  of  southern  Russia 
were  found,  camped  in  the  open,  with  no  shelter  save 
that  afforded  by  the  wagons  they  had  brought  with  them, 
and  such  semi -tent,  semi-hut  structures  as  they  had  been 
able  to  hurriedly  construct.  There  were  perhaps  twenty 
families  in  this  group. 

The  elder  (or  starosta,  as  the  Russians  call  him)  was 
loud  and  bitter  in  his  complaints.  They  had  been  there 
in  sun  and  rain  for  three  weeks,  he  said.  Four  babes  had 
already  died  and  two  more  were  at  that  moment  seriously 
ill.  The  emigration  officer  had  not  allotted  them  their 
lands  or  shown  them  where  to  go,  and  nobody  knew  when 
he  would  do  so.  Indeed,  nobody  knew  where  the  emi- 
grant officer  was.  The  other  peasants  crowded  around 
and  eagerly  and  mournfully  confirmed  the  melancholy 
plaint  of  their  chief.  If  they  had  known  what  they  were 
coming  to  they  never  would  have  left  Russia,  they  com- 
plained. The  women  were  strident  in  their  demands  that 
the  whole  colony  should  immediately  return  to  Russia. 

It  was  precisely  the  situation  which  the  writer  observed, 
in  1885,  on  the  plains  of  western  Kansas,  when  "settlers" 
from  other  States  were  disappointed  at  not  finding  the 
unbroken  prairie  fields  in  full  flower,  and  when  the  women 

217 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

of  the  household  forced  the  entire  abandonment  of  the 
enterprise.  But  in  the  case  of  these  Russian  peasants  it 
was  not  so  easy  to  return.  Indeed,  in  the  case  ot  these 
particular  ones  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  get  back 
to  the  fatherland  at  that  time. 

Not  that  the  Russian  peasant  emigrant  to  Siberia  is 
not  permitted  to  return  to  Russia;  on  the  contrary,  two 
separate  and  considerable  trains  were  observed  on  the 
Siberian  line  taking  back  to  their  homes  emigrants  who 
had  grown  tired  or  dissatisfied  with  their  new  surround- 
ings, and  who  were  unwilling  longer  to  continue  in  Siberia. 
But  in  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  those  who  go  to 
Siberia  from  Russia  only  a  few  thousand,  comparatively 
speaking,  go  back  to  the  place  of  their  birth.  And  those 
who  return  are,  of  course,  the  least  stanch  and  aggressive 
in  character  of  the  entire  emigrant  population. 

So  that  not  only  are  the  hard  conditions  of  nature  in 
Siberia  eliminating  the  physically  weak  from  the  new 
people  there  being  compounded,  but  the  weaker  charac- 
ters are  also  being  rejected  by  their  own  lack  of  steadiness 
and  spirit.  From  an  ethnological  point  of  view  these  two 
circumstances  are  of  value  in  understanding  the  character 
of  the  Russian  in  Asia,  which,  in  the  end,  is  bound  to  be 
an  improvement  on  the  character  of  the  Russian  in 
Europe. 

It  is  said  that  Russian  officials  whom  the  government 
places  in  charge  of  the  distribution  of  emigrant  lands  are 
notably  inefficient.  There  is  no  way,  short  of  several 
years  of  weary  investigation,  to  determine  whether  this 
is  generally  true  or  not.  Certainly  it  was  not  true  in  one 
instance  which  fell  under  the  writer's  personal  observa- 
tion. A  young  Russian  civil  officer  was  among  a  com- 
pany who  floated  down  the  long  and  hard  journey  on  the 
iDoats  of  the  Shilka  and  Amur  rivers.  This  young  man, 
it  was  learned,  was  to  take  charge  of  the  distribution  of 
emigrant  lands  at  a  newly  opened  post.  He  was  highly 
educated,  belonged  to  the  ultra-Slavophile  party  of  Rus- 

218 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

sia,  and  appeared  to  be  devoted  to  his  work  with  almost 
missionary  enthusiasm.  Nor  was  this  the  fervor  bom 
ot  anticipation  of  the  untried  delights  of  unfamiliar  occu- 
pation. This  officer  had  already  had  experience  in 
similar  work,  and  had  been  selected  because  of  his 
efficiency.  Of  course,  this  information  was  not  derived 
from  him;  but  there  was  abundance  of  time  to  inquire 
into  its  truth,  and  careful  verification  was  therefore  made. 

He  took  the  greatest  possible  interest  in  the  peasants 
on  board,  who  seemed  to  return  his  attention  with  affec- 
tionate gratitude.  A  sufficient  stop  was  made  at  the 
point  where  he  disembarked  to  observe  how  he  went  about 
his  business;  and  he  entered  upon  the  discharge  of  his 
duties  with  the  same  trained  calmness  and  energy  which 
you  might  expect  an  American  to  exhibit  who  is  equipped 
for  his  work  and  in  love  with  it.  It  is  true  that  this 
example  may  not  be  typical,  and  it  is  further  true  that 
the  praise  of  this  officer  by  his  fellow-Russians  might  have 
been  exaggerated,  and  his  own  apparent  eagerness  for  and 
concern  in  his  employment  superficial.  But  as  one  of  the 
minor  incidents  of  Slav  colonization,  this  example  is 
believed  to  be  worth  recalling. 

The  raft  transportation  down  the  Shilka  and  Amur 
rivers  is  worthy  of  repeated  notice.  In  the  summer  of 
1 90 1,  scores,  hundreds  of  these  rafts  were  observed  lazily 
floating  down  those  Siberian  streams.  Each  of  them 
contains  at  least  one  Russian  family.  On  some  of  them 
several  Russian  families  were  being  carried  by  the  slow 
current  to  their  remote  destination.  Nor  were  human 
beings  the  only  inhabitants  of  these  rafts.  The  peasant's 
wives  and  children  were  there;  but  so  were  his  horses,  his 
cattle,  and  all  of  the  transportable  things  which  the 
family  possessed. 

Over  and  over  again  the  analogy  of  these  Slav  frontiers- 
men with  their  American  counterparts  in  the  period  of 
the  early  settlement  of  our  own  country  suggested  itself. 
Here  were  the  same  fearlessness,  the  same  daring  of  the 

219 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

unknown,  the  same  severance  from  the  place  of  their 
birth,  the  same  intention  to  plant  in  the  wilderness  the 
institutions  which  they  had  left.  With  the  American 
pioneer  it  was  Anglo-Saxon  individualism  and  the  insti- 
tutions of  a  representative  government ;  with  the  Russian 
emigrant  it  is  Slav  communism  and  the  institutions  of 
autocracy.  But  here  the  parallel  ends,  for  with  the  Rus- 
sian emigrant  all  is  patience,  leisureliness,  lethargy.  Their 
slow  course  towards  the  ends  of  the  earth,  their  utter 
want  of  hurry  or  impatience,  was  suggestive  of  the  prog- 
ress of  their  nation  through  history. 

Indeed,  the  Russian  peasant,  on  his  cumbersome  raft 
on  the  Amur,  is  the  Russian  nation  floating  towards  the 
sea.  The  progress  of  the  Amur  currents  is  quite  fast 
enough  for  him,  and,  besides,  it  is  nature's  method  of 
transportation.  And  the  Russian  peasant  is  a  very  nat- 
ural human  being.  He  does  not  -see  any  use  of  getting 
very  far  away  from  nature.  It  is  believed  from  what  was 
observed  on  the  crowded  emigrant  boats  that,  had  not  the 
peasants  packed  upon  these  vessels  been  directed  to  travel 
in  that  manner,  they  would  have  been  quite  as  content 
to  have  travelled  by  raft  as  by  the  more  speedy  agency 
of  steam,  if,  indeed,  they  would  not  actually  have  pre- 
ferred it. 

It  is  not  worth  while  to  waste  any  lines  in  the  descrip- 
tion of  these  towns,  and  no  traveller  should  squander  a 
single  day  in  remaining  at  any  of  them,  excepting  only 
the  cities  hereafter  described.  No  one  but  the  most 
studious  minded,  in  search  of  particular  information, 
should  visit  them;  and  even  such  a  student  will  not 
find  it  of  advantage  to  remain  long;  and  having  visited 
one  of  these  towns  he  has  visited  all  of  them,  for  each  is 
a  type  of  a  class,  all  are  representatives  of  the  same 
model.  Broad  streets,  wooden  buildings,  fairly  good 
stores,  large  market-places,  many  churches — some  of  them 
strangely  magnificent  in  comparison  with  the  architectural 
poverty  of  the  town  itself — a  centre  for  local  distribution 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

and  trade,  a  focus-point  for  the  Russian  fairs  to  which 
the  peasants  of  whole  districts  converge — such,  and  only- 
such,  is  the  ordinary  town  of  considerable  size  along  the 
Siberian  railway. 

A  notable  thing  about  both  Russia  and  Japan  is  the 
myriads  of  children.  In  a  street  leading  out  of  the  beau- 
tiful little  port  of  Kobe,  Japan,  twenty-three  children  were 
counted  in  the  arms  of  mothers  or  sisters  in  the  course 
of  exactly  five  minutes  of  a  jinrikisha  ride.  The  same 
evidence  of  fecundity  may  be  observed  anywhere  in 
Russia;  and  in  Siberia  reproductiveness  seems  to  be 
accelerated.  It  would  be  impossible  for  any  traveller 
to  look  out  of  a  car-window  at  any  station  on  the  trans- 
Siberian  road,  during  the  season  when  women  can  be 
out-of-doors,  without  observing  children  at  every  age, 
from  a  few  months  to  a  dozen  years. 

And  if  you  will  leave  the  train  and  go  into  the  interior, 
you  will  find  that  the  sight  at  the  station  was  only  a  sug- 
gestion of  the  universal  reality.  Children,  children,  and 
again  children,  and  still  children.  Everywhere  the  Rus- 
sian is  productive,  but  in  Siberia  the  birth  rate  is  the  high- 
est in  the  world.  Next  to  Siberia  the  birth  rate  of  Russia 
is  the  highest  in  the  world.  And  the  death  rate  of  Siberia 
is  lower  than  that  of  Russia  proper.  When  one  reflects 
that  the  hard  conditions  of  Siberian  life  exterminates 
all  but  the  ruggedest  infants,  one  begins  to  comprehend 
the  physical  hardihood  of  this  pioneer  race  which  is  grow- 
ing up  in  this  new  land. 

"  How  strong  these  people  look!"  observed  an  impartial 
traveller.  "How  ruddy  their  faces!  how  broad  their 
shoulders!  how  deep  their  chests!  how  sturdy  their  arms 
and  legs!  They  do  not  at  all  look  the  unhappy  and 
down -trodden  people  they  have  been  pictured,  do  they?" 

"Well,"  responded  an  Englishman,  "and  what  are  they? 
They  are  nothing  but  so  many  human  cattle  deprived 
of  their  rights." 

It  wa5  an  illuminative  conversation.     With  much  care, 

221 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

and  through  an  interpreter  who  was  not  distrusted  by 
them  (and  this  is  one  precaution  you  must  look  to  care- 
fully), conversations  were  had  with  many  of  these,  the 
common  people  of  Russia  in  Asia.  "Did  they  want  to 
vote?"  Why,  they  did  that  now.  Did  not  all  of  them, 
even  the  women  who  were  widows,  have  a  free  voice  in 
their  communes,  etc.?  "But  did  they  not  want  to  vote 
as  Americans  and  Englishmen  vote?"  They  were  dum- 
founded;  they  did  not  know  what  it  meant.  "Did  they 
not  want  to  take  part  in  the  government? "  Again,  they 
did  that  in  every  village  which  exists  in  Siberia  after  the 
parent  Russian  form.  "  But  did  they  not  want  something 
to  say  about  what  laws  should  govern  them?"  No,  in- 
deed! They  cared  nothing  for  that.  That  was  the  busi- 
ness of  the  government.  The  government  was  bad,  but 
they  would  not  make  it  any  better.  And  if  the  Czar  only 
knew  where  the  government  of  his  peasants  is  bad,  he 
would  make  it  right ;  and  the  Czar  would  know  some  day. 
In  Siberia,  as  in  Russia,  with  the  peasant  it  is  always  the 
Czar.  He  is  the  peasant's  friend,  their  father,  who  is  lov- 
ing and  caring  for  them  the  best  he  can,  and  who,  some 
day,  "when  he  knows,"  will  make  everything  all  right. 
The  devotion  of  the  Russian  peasant  to  the  Czar  is  touch- 
ing and  pathetic,  and,  by  the  same  token,  a  circumstance 
of  import  to  every  nation  whose  fate  it  is  to  reckon  with 
Russia. 

So  it  appeared  that,  as  yet,  these  people  have  had  none 
of  the  rights,  which  the  American  or  Englishman  means 
when  he  uses  that  word,  of  which  they  could  be  de- 
prived. So  again  it  appeared  that  they  were  in  perfect 
ignorance  of  these  rights,  and  on  the  whole  it  further 
appeared  that  they  are  without  the  initiative  as  a  mass 
to  inaugurate  any  movement  to  secure  them,  even  if 
they  comprehended  them.  And,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  Russian  peasant,  at  least  the  Russian  agricultural 
peasant,  does  not  care  the  least  bit  about  those  rights; 
and  where  local  self-government  has  been  attempted  in 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Russia,  beyond  the  ancient  self-government  of  the  village 
community,  the  authorities  have  had  serious  difficulty  in 
getting  the  peasant  to  take  part  in  the  innovation.  Also, 
it  must  be  said  that  apparently  they  are  as  well  satisfied 
with  their  government  as  perhaps  any  other  people  are 
with  their  government.  If  the  crops  fail  here  in  America, 
do  we  not  lay  the  ensuing  hard  times  to  the  fault  of  the 
administration? 


XVI 

HIGH    AND    LOW    WATER    MARKS    OF    SIBERIAN    PROGRESS 

THREE  samples  of  Siberian  towns  will  serve  as  illus- 
trations of  the  highest  point  of  Siberian  develop- 
ment. Irkutsk  is  in  the  heart  of  that  enormous  region. 
On  the  one  hand,  it  is  thousands  of  miles  from  Moscow; 
on  the  other  hand,  it  is  thousands  of  miles  from  Pekin. 
Well,  then,  what  of  Irkutsk? 

"I  think  you  will  find  our  museum  interesting,"  said  a 
pleasant  Russian  business -man  of  Irkutsk.  Museum! 
The  sciences  studied  here!  For  this  was  the  very  heart 
of  Siberia.  It  seemed  a  curious  invitation.  Down  the 
broad  street,  therefore,  we  strolled. 

"And  what  is  that  fine  building?"  the  stranger  asked. 

"Oh,  that  is  our  opera-house." 

"And  do  you  have  operas  here?" 

"Why,  certainly;  and  why  should  we  not?  and  plays, 
too.  Very  good  companies,  indeed,  come  here  from 
Moscow.  Don't  think  that  we  are  without  amusements. 
We  cannot  rival  St.  Petersburg,  of  course,  but  we  are  far 
ahead  of  anything  in  Russia  outside  of  half  a  dozen  of 
the  mother-country's  leading  cities." 

"And  who  built  this  opera-house?" 

"It  was  built  by  subscription.  A  number  of  our  rich 
merchants  raised  the  money,  and  they  raised  it,  too,  in  less 
than  a  week." 

So  that  here  in  the  very  centre  of  the  Russian's  Asiatic 
empire,  and  on  the  way  to  a  museum,  was  found  an 
opera-house  as  large  in  dimension  and  as  excellent  in 
appointment  as  will  be  found  in  any  of  the  third-rate 

224 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

cities  of  the  United  States.  If  you  consider  it  in  com- 
parison with  the  places  of  amusement  of  our  frontier 
towns  of  twenty  years  ago,  you  will  have  only  words  of 
contrast  to  describe  the  two.  Indeed,  not  a  dozen  New 
York  playhouses  surpass  it.  So  it  appeared  that  the 
Slav  is  enjoying  himself  in  Siberia  with  plays  and  operas 
presented  in  a  first-class  theatre.  We  are  not  among 
barbarians,  that  is  clear,  nor  even  rude  and  uncultured 
people,  if  we  are  in  the  Czar's  land  of  exile. 

And  the  museum!  Here  were  skulls  and  skeletons  of 
races  inhabiting  Siberia  long  before  the  time  of  Yer- 
mack.  Here  were  iron  stirrups,  lances,  and  all  the  ac- 
coutrements of  warfare  of  by-gone  centuries.  Here  was 
a  sample  of  the  simple  craft  with  which  the  aborigines 
navigated  the  rivers.  And  anthropology  and  ethnology 
had  not  alone  occupied  the  attention  of  these  local  scien- 
tists. Fishes,  animals,  plants,  samples  of  all  the  flora  and 
fauna  of  this  unfamiliar  region  of  the  earth  were  carefully 
arranged,  attractively  exhibited,  and  scientifically  classi- 
fied. 

"That  looks  like  a  church,  and  not  a  Russian  church," 
observed  the  stranger. 

"Why,  a  church  it  is,  and  not  a  Russian  church  either," 
said  the  citizen  of  Irkutsk.     "Yonder  is  another,  too." 

And  very  pleasant — even  handsome,  in  a  modest  way 
— were  these  religious  edifices.  There  are  church  build- 
ings, then,  for  several  different  denominations  in  Irkutsk, 
Siberia.  Of  course,  as  everywhere,  the  Russian  Greek 
Orthodox  Cathedral,  magnificent,  picturesque,  imposing, 
dominates  all  else.  But  here  was  a  visible  exhibition  of 
religious  tolerance  as  surprising  as  it  is  pleasing  to  the 
Western  traveller,  who  had  been  taught  to  look  upon  all 
the  empire  of  the  Czar's  as  dominions  of  oppressive 
religious  intolerance.  In  short,  in  Irkutsk,  as  elsewhere 
in  Russia,  a  man  may  worship  God  in  his  own  way, 
or  not  worship  Him  at  all,  just  as  he  pleases,  provided 
only  that  he  does  not  attempt  to  lead  away  members 
IS  225 


THE    RUSSIAN    xlDVANCE 

of  the  Russian  National  Church,  or,  if  he  is  a  member, 
does  not  try  to  leave  it  himself.  Protestants  build  their 
churches  and  hold  their  services  as  in  America.  Moham- 
medans do  likewise,  as  in  Turkey;  and  a  mosque,  built 
by  the  faithful  followers  of  the  prophet,  lifts  its  assertive 
domes  almost  within  sight  of  the  city. 

"You  will  find  the  railway  from  Irkutsk  to  Stretensk 
without  dinner  or  buffet,  so  you  had  better  provide  your- 
self here  with  food  for  at  least  two  days'  travel,"  said 
the  friendly  Russian  of  Irkutsk.  (From  Moscow  to  Ir- 
kutsk, but  not  beyond,  there  was,  in  1901,  well-furnished 
through  trains  with  excellent  buffet  and  dining  cars,  and 
sleeping-car  accommodations  quite  equal  to  those  found 
anywhere  in  Europe,  or  even  America.  But  this  service 
has  since  been  extended  over  the  Manchurian  line  to  Dalni 
and  Port  Arthur  on  the  Chinese  waters.) 

So  the  stores  of  Irkutsk  were  visited.  They  are  nu- 
merous, some  of  them  large,  all  well  provisioned.  In  a 
single  store  you  can  buy  things  to  eat  and  things  to  wear : 
rubber  coats  and  cloaks  for  the  precarious  journey  on  the 
Amur;  canned  cherries,  peaches,  raspberries — all  manner 
of  preserves — in  short,  anything  which  you  can  buy  in  a 
department  store  in  the  United  States,  and  at  prices 
about  the  same.  Most  of  these  goods  are  Russian;  for  be 
it  remembered  that  it  is  the  policy  of  the  present  adminis- 
tration of  the  Czar  not  only  to  preserve  the  lands  of  the 
empire  for  Russian  subjects  but  their  trade  and  com- 
merce as  well.  Russia  proposes  in  time  to  become  in- 
dependent of  the  world.  She  is  in  no  hurry  about  it,  as 
she  is  in  no  hurry  about  anything.  Are  not  the  centuries 
hers  ?  Why  exploit  everything  in  an  hour  and  get  through 
with  life  in  a  year?  That  is  the  Russian  thought.  There 
is  something  about  the  lethargic  patience  of  the  Russian 
which  reminds  you  of  the  slow  leisureliness  of  the  processes 
of  nature  itself.  Their  very  inertia  has  something  in  it  ele- 
mental. 

There  are  two  additional  explanations  for  the  prepon- 

226 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

derance  of  Russian  goods  in  Siberian  stores  west  of  Lake 
Baikal.  One  is  that  the  distance  is  not  so  great  from 
Moscow  but  that  a  Russian  merchant  may  ship  his  goods 
at  a  profit  even  to  Irkutsk.  Also  this  portion  of  Siberia  is 
so  far  from  the  Pacific,  and  until  recently  the  methods  of 
shipment  were  so  crude  and  expensive  that  it  did  not  pay 
to  put  American  goods  into  this  portion  of  Siberia  by  way 
of  the  Pacific,  and,  of  course,  not  by  rail  through  Russia 
itself.  Even  here,  nevertheless,  most  of  the  mining  ma- 
chinery and  things  of  that  kind  are  American  made. 

"These  Russians,"  said  a  young  German  electrical  en- 
gineer establishing  himself  in  Irkutsk,  "are  not  to  be 
feared  in  our  lifetime,  nor  in  that  of  our  children,  as  com- 
mercial competitors,  but  I  am  full  of  fear  of  them  for  the 
distant  future.  I  will  not  be  here  then,  it  is  true,  but 
Germany  will  still  be  here.  I  do  not  know  whether  it  is 
because  they  are  dull,  or  whether  it  is  because  they  are 
far-sighted,  but  they  are  going  about  things  in  a  way 
which,  it  appears  to  me,  will  make  their  power  irresistible 
in  the  long  course  of  time." 

Germans  in  Irkutsk!  Certainly.  A  large  German  col- 
ony thrives  in  this  capital  of  Russia  in  Asia.  Indeed,  the 
German  is  everywhere;  likewise  he  prospers  everywhere. 
His  activity  within  the  Russian  dominions  has  been  noted 
before  and  will  be  noted  again.  The  German  agricultural 
settlements  in  European  Russia  are  conspicuous  for  their 
prosperity.  In  every  city  you  will  find  large  numbers  of 
German  merchants.  It  appears  that  at  one  time  for- 
eigners were  invited  to  establish  industries  in  Russia,  and 
to  this  call  the  enterprising,  watchful  German  responded 
promptly  and  numerously.  This  is  said  to  be  the  reason 
why  the  German  language  is  so  manifest  within  the  Czar's 
dominions.  Certain  it  is  that  if  you  speak  German  you 
may  travel  from  St.  Petersburg  to  Port  Arthur  without  an 
interpreter.  You  will  be  sure  to  find  on  every  train,  in 
every  city,  and  at  every  possible  point  of  enterprise  some 
one  who  can  speak  German.     The  young  German  above 

227 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

quoted  was  returning  to  Irkutsk  from  Berlin,  with  his 
young  German  wife,  and  their  residence  in  Irkutsk  was  to 
be  permanent.  He  had  already  taken  the  business  away 
from  the  English  electrical  engineer  located  at  that  point. 
It  is  a  notable  circumstance  that  German  energy,  intelli- 
gence, and  industry  is  weaving  a  web  of  German  influence 
all  around  the  world. 

Let  us  now  take  Blagovestchensk,  in  Trans  -  Baikal 
Siberia.  This  remarkable  town,  thousands  of  miles  from 
nowhere  at  all,  midway  and  nearly  two  thousand  miles 
from  Irkutsk  on  the  west,  and  almost  the  same  dis- 
tance from  Vladivostock  on  the  east,  standing  on  the 
banks  of  the  Amur,  with  the  inhospitable  and,  until  recent- 
ly, hostile  and  menacing  Manchurian  frontier  within  rifle- 
shot across  the  river,  is  surprisingly  beautiful,  astonish- 
ingly progressive. 

Like  every  Russian  town,  its  streets  are  American  in 
breadth.  In  Blagovestchensk  the  houses  bordering  on 
these  streets  are  almost,  without  exception,  comfortable 
and  attractive.  Many  of  them  are  commodious;  some 
are  positively  handsome.  Almost  everywhere  these  Rus- 
sians have  made  gardens  and  planted  trees.  The  "  horni- 
ness"  of  the  residences  strikes  one  with  singular  force 
when  one  remembers  that  this  is  not  Europe,  not  Colorado, 
not  Dakota,  not  even  Siberia  proper,  but  a  far-off,  segre- 
gated portion  of  the  earth's  surface,  on  the  very  edge 
of  what  was,  until  yesterday,  Asia's  dark  and  bloody 
ground. 

There  are  department  stores  here  which  are  not  sur- 
passed by  any  American  city  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  inhabitants.  These  stores  are  nothing  less  than 
magnificent  in  their  proportions.  In  them  you  may  buy 
any  conceivable  thing  you  may  want,  from  towels  to  fire- 
arms, from  mackintoshes  to  toys,  from  sugar  to  paint. 
And  although  Blagovestchensk  is  essentially  a  "mining 
town,"  the  prices  are  about  the  same  as  in  the  United 
States  and  not  so  very  much  greater  than  m  Russia 

2'2r8 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

itself;  indeed,  not  surprisingly  higher  than  in  Germany 
or  England. 

Of  course  the  greatest  of  these  mercantile  establish- 
ments is  German,  although  a  large  Russian  house  al- 
most rivals  its  German  competitor.  The  American  com- 
mercial plant  which  thrived  here  for  some  years  looked 
to  be  on  the  point  of  extinction.  American  threshing- 
machines,  manufactured  by  a  firm  in  Ohio,  American 
ploughs,  American  agricultural  implements  of.  all  kinds 
were  examined  and  priced  in  the  German  store. 

"Do  you  have  sale  for  agricultural  implements?" 

"Indeed  we  do,  and  the  demand  is  growing.  You  observe 
yourself  our  present  heavy  stock.  We  have  other  consign- 
ments coming,  and  still  we  cannot  supply  the  demand." 

"But  I  thought  that  this  was  a  mining  town?"  was  the 
inquiry. 

"So  it  is,  or,  rather,  has  been,"  replied  the  German 
merchant;  "or,  rather,  it  is  the  depot  of  the  products  of 
mines  located  hundreds  of  miles  away  from  here.  But 
the  future  of  this  country  is  in  its  agriculture  and  grazing, 
and  this  is  daily  becoming  more  apparent  to  us  merchants. 
The  country  around  here  is  settled  for  scores  of  miles. 
Also  the  farmers  seem  to  thrive — at  least  they  are  able  to 
buy  and  pay  for  these  implements." 

"Why  does  not  some  capitalist  start  a  factory  here?" 
was  asked. 

"They  have  already  done  so.  A  German  firm  has  a 
considerable  establishment  not  far  from  town." 

So  the  German  factory  of  agricultural  implements  was 
visited.  The  plant  was  quite  respectable  and  in  process 
of  enlargement.  It  turned  out  threshing-machines  and 
various  things  of  the  sort. 

"I  suppose  you  will  soon  monopolize  this  market," 
was  asked  of  the  manager. 

"Unfortunately,  no,"  he  answered.  "Material  is  hard 
to  get ;  labor  is  high  priced ;  its  efficiency  is  only  a  fraction 
of  that  of  American  labor  in  the  same  line." 

229 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

The  heads  of  departments,  the  highly  skilled  artisans, 
were,  to  a  man,  German,  but  all  the  rest  of  the  labor  was 
Russian.  And  these  laborers  live  very  well  indeed.  As 
in  Russia,  so  here,  the  company  had  built  living  quarters 
for  the  men  and  their  families.  But  here  in  Blagovest- 
chensk  the  laborers'  homes  are  not,  as  in  European  Russia, 
vast  dormitories.  They  live  in  attractive  little  cottages, 
around  which  trees  had  lately  been  planted,  and  they 
have  most  of  the  accommodations  and  creature  comforts 
which  it  is  supposed  the  American  laborer  alone  enjoys. 

Here  in  Blagovestchensk,  too,  are  three  or  four  flouring 
mills,  and  others  are  projected.  They  do  not  hold  their 
own  as  yet  with  American  flour,  for  American  flour  looks 
better,  tastes  better,  is  better  than  that  produced  in 
Blagovestchensk.  Therefore,  the  people  like  it  better, 
and  the  people  buy  it  more  readily.  Given  an  equal 
footing,  American  products  will  compete  successfully 
even  with  local  enterprises  in  Siberia  itself.  Were  it 
possible  for  America  and  Russia  to  enter  into  some 
commercial  agreement  by  which  American  goods  could 
have  free  access  to  Russia's  markets,  it  is  clear  to  the 
thoughtful  observer  that,  almost  to  the  exclusion  of  all 
the  rest  of  the  world,  America  and  Russia  combined  would 
soon  feed,  clothe,  and  supply  all  the  wants  of  the  scores 
of  millions  who  people  the  world's  greatest  empire. 

Irkutsk  and  Blagovestchensk  are  Siberia  at  their  best. 
Now  for  Sibeiia  at  her  worst. 

The  curious  American  sauntered  down  a  side  street  in 
Misovaia.  Misovaia,  you  must  know,  is  on  the  east  shore 
of  Lake  Baikal,  where  the  steamer  lands  you  from  the 
Siberian  road  on  the  west  side  to  again  take  up  the  rail 
journey  on  the  east  side. 

"  Don't  go  there!"  came  the  panting  voice  of  the  watch- 
ful interpreter  as,  running  and  white-faced,  he  caught  up 
with  his  employer.  "Come  back,  I  beg  of  you!  You 
will  get  your  throat  slit  or  be  mauled  in  the  head  or 
killed  some  other  way  if  you  wander  recklessly  about 

230 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

this  place."  Purple  evening  was  quickly  falling,  and  the 
dark  shadows,  everywhere  around  the  earth  the  partners 
of  crime,  were  already  enveloping  the  little  town  with 
indistinguishableness. 

"I  see  no  danger,  and  everything  looks  peaceful 
enough,"  said  the  American. 

"But  this  is  the  worst  place  in  Siberia.  Last  week 
two  men  were  found  garroted  [strangled]  and  stripped  of 
everything  right  on  the  streets.  Since  we  arrived  I  have 
been  told  that  there  was  a  murder  here  yesterday.  To- 
day a  man  was  stabbed  at  noon  right  in  the  open  streets. 
And  you  are  unarmed  and  an  American.  If  you  wander 
around  here  at  night  nothing  but  a  miracle  can  save 
your  life." 

Such  was  the  report  of  this  little  Russian  town  not 
half  a  day  by  rail  from  gay,  prosperous,  busy,  civilized 
Irkutsk.  And  yet  nothing  more  harmless  than  the  ap- 
pearance of  its  inhabitants  could  be  imagined.  Kindly 
faced,  sleepy-eyed  moujiks,  scores,  hundreds  of  inoffensive 
peasant  emigrants  from  Russia  (for  here,  as  everywhere, 
are  emigrant  headquarters),  two  or  three  dozen  railroad 
working-men,  all  very  busy  with  the  jam  of  cars;  station- 
master,  telegraph-operator,  and  a  few  passengers — and 
yet  this  the  abode  of  open  assassination  and  skulking 
robbery.  Everybody  confirms  the  bad  reputation  of 
Misovaia.  But  the  uninformed  foreign  observer  could 
discern  nothing  that  bore  the  appearance  of  disorder  and 
crime.  On  the  surface  it  looked  no  more  dangerous  than 
any  American  country  village — not  a  hundredth  part  so 
formidable  and  forbidding  as  certain  well-known  streets 
of  Chicago  and  New  York.  Hence  one's  inclination  is  to 
believe  that  the  stories  of  Siberian  cord  and  knife  and 
bludgeon  are  seriously  overstated. 

Move  on  now  for  three  days'  journey  by  rail  to  Stretensk. 
This  town  until  two  years  ago  was  the  actual  terminus 
of  the  Siberian  railway.  It  is  practically  midway  be- 
tween Irkutsk  on  the  west  and  Blagovestchensk  on  the 

231 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

east.  It  is  the  head  of  "navigation  "  on  the  Shilka  River. 
Here  start  the  steamers  that  go  down  the  Shilka  River  into 
the  Amur,  and  down  the  Amur  to  Blagovestchensk,  and 
then  for  many  hundreds  of  miles  to  Khabaroff,  the  po- 
litical capital  of  Trans-Baikal  Siberia. 

The  railroad,  with  its  delta  of  switches,  ends  on  one 
side  of  the  river,  and  on  the  hill  above  enormous  emi- 
gration barracks,  provision  houses,  store-rooms,  etc.,  are 
visible.  Stretensk  itself  is  on  the  other  side  of  the  river. 
But  let  us  waste  no  time  with  local  geography. 

Stretensk  is  a  typical  Cossack  settlement.  By  some 
early  decree  or  other  (and  seek  not  to  follow  Russian 
decrees,  you  never  can  unravel  them)  this  land  and  all 
the  adjacent  town  belong  to  the  Cossacks  and  their 
children.  Its  government  is  exclusively  in  the  hands 
of  the  Cossacks,  and  is  a  military — Cossack — oligarchy. 
Neither  the  merchant,  the  banker,  the  trader — in  short, 
nobody  but  the  Cossack  proprietor — has  any  voice  in  the 
administration  of  municipal  affairs. 

Whether  this  or  something  else  is  the  reason,  the 
fact  remains  that  Stretensk  shows  absolutely  no  progress. 
The  houses  are  wooden  and  filthy.  The  yards  are  pig- 
sties, the  streets  unpaved,  miserable  stretches  of  desola- 
tion. A  gray-haired  woman  lay  in  the  mud  on  the 
bank  of  the  river  in  a  coma  of  vodka  intoxication.  The 
men  are  sturdy,  broad  -  shouldered,  thick  -  necked,  and 
bull -headed ;  the  women  are  creatures  of  immense  physical 
capacity.  Children,  pigs,  and  chickens  throng  each  door- 
way. Yet  Stretensk  has  not  a  particularly  evil  reputation 
for  crime,  but  it  is  just  the  spot  of  which  you  would  be 
prepared  to  believe  any  tale  of  horror  told  you.  And, 
indeed,  you  are  warned  to  stay  in-doors  at  night,  and 
occasionally  rumors  of  assault  and  robbery  float  in  the 
atmosphere. 

"Seek  for  the  beautiful  even  amid  squalor,"  says  some 
writer.  So  even  Stretensk  has  its  oasis.  Here  is  one  of 
the    branches    of   the   many   tentacled    Russo  -  Chinese 

232 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Bank.  Connected  with  the  bank  itself  is  the  home  of  the 
manager.  The  whole  stands  in  a  neat  and  (compared 
with  the  rest  of  Stretensk)  not  unattractive  enclosure. 
In  this  home  pleasing  rooms  are  found.  The  notes  of  the 
piano,  well  played,  sound  strangely  at  night,  among  sur- 
roundings so  intellectually  dense  that  you  can  almost  feel 
its  oppressive  influence. 

At  the  board  presides  the  manager's  wife,  a  Russian 
girl,  Siberian  born,  and  never  nearer  Europe  than  Irkutsk, 
and  yet  as  well  groomed  and  in  costume  as  perfect  as  her 
sisters  in  St.  Petersburg.  She  is  Siberian  educated,  too. 
There  is  the  grandmother  also — you  would  take  the  quiet, 
dignified,  white-haired  Siberian  mother  for  an  American 
woman  of  similar  condition — and  the  children,  quiet,  well 
bred,  clean,  modestly  attired.  The  talk  is  of  everything. 
The  great  world  without,  of  course,  first  of  all.  Here  is 
keen  but  reserved  curiosity  as  to  foreign  thinking  and 
doing.  Yes,  but  here  also  is  information  of  the  world 
surprisingly  accurate,  when  you  consider  that  you  are  in 
Siberia's  very  heart  of  darkness. 

The  manager  of  this  bank,  like  every  manager  of  every 
branch  of  this  amazing  financial  institution  of  the  Russian 
government,  was  found  to  be  a  man  of  real  capacity,  of 
independent  views,  of  fearless  expression,  well  posted  on 
the  world's  development,  and  informed  to  the  minutest 
particular  on  local  trade  and  financial  conditions.  The 
banking-rooms  themselves  are  in  charge  of  the  manager 
and  two  under-officers,  both  Russians,  the  other  assist- 
ants being,  as  is  universally  the  case,  Chinese;  for  you 
must  know  that  the  Chinaman  has  an  aptitude  for  sharp 
finance  not  equalled  by  any  other  money-changer  in  the 
world.  Also  your  Chinaman  is  the  world's  most  careful 
and  persistent  small  merchant — and  large  merchant,  too, 
for  that  matter,  as  you  will  soon  learn  if  you  take  the  pains 
to  investigate  into  the  heavier  commercial  operations  of 
China.  In  short,  the  inhabitant  of  the  Flowery  King- 
dom, who  is  disgracefully  negligent  of  government  and  of 

233 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

all  civil  affairs,  is  the  most  industrious  and  careful  toiler, 
the  most  ingenious  and  persistent  merchant,  and  the  most 
alert  and  advantageous  dealer  in  money  now  on  the  face 
of  the  globe. 

"Oh  yes,"  said  a  financial  gentleman  of  Trans-Baikal 
Siberia,  "we  must  have  the  Chinese  in  our  counting- 
houses.  Really,  they  are  quite  indispensable.  We  find 
them  accurate  and  honest;  but,  mark  you,  their  honesty 
is  not  a  matter  of  morals.  It  is  purely  a  matter  of 
wisdom.  With  the  Chinaman  honesty  is  the  best  policy, 
and  therefore  he  is  honest.  The  moment  he  perceives 
that  honesty  is  not  the  best  policy  he  is  dishonest." 
From  this  it  appears  that  the  Chinaman  in  Siberia,  as  in 
China  and  elsewhere  in  the  world,  has  the  scrupulousness 
of  wisdom  but  not  of  righteousness. 

On  the  banks  of  the  Amur  you  will  find  other  Cos- 
sack settlements  smaller  but  still  similar  to  Stretensk. 
None,  however,  are  so  squalid  as  this  Cossack  town. 
Occasionally  you  may  find  a  Cossack  village  which  is 
really  attractive.  Usually  there  is  but  a  single  street 
stretching  along  the  bluff.  Sometimes  the  homes  are 
neat.  In  every  one  of  these  Cossack  villages  are  well- 
stocked  stores;  and  whatever  else  a  Russian  or  Sibe- 
rian store  will  deal  in,  you  will  find  an  abundance  of 
two  articles  —  perfumery,  candy  and  sweetmeats,  in 
their  various  forms.  Time  and  again  Russian  officers 
were  observed  to  buy  great  quantities  of  these  sweets. 
At  one  place  the  entire  stock  of  saccharine  goods  was 
purchased. 

"We  Russians,  from  the  youngest  child  to  the  eldest 
man,  love  sugar  in  its  various  forms,"  explained  a  general 
on  his  way  to  inspect  the  marksmanship  of  the  troops 
around  Vladivostock. 

"Oh  yes,"  observed  a  noble  tchnovnick,  who  was  head- 
ing one  of  the  innumerable  Russian  "commissions,"  "the 
Russian  has  a  sweet  tooth." 

Attention  was  called  to  the  extraordinary  stock  of  per- 

234 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

fumes  found  at  the  stores  in  a  Russian  city  where  such 
articles  were  for  sale. 

"Well,"  said  the  storekeeper,  "you  see,  the  Russian 
adores  sweet  odors.  This  passion  for  perfumes  is  not 
confined  to  our  women  either;  it  is  common  to  men  and 
women  alike." 

Precisely  the  same  explanation  was  made  to  a  like  in- 
quiry when  a  whole  case  of  shelves  was  observed  to  be 
filled  with  various  perfumes  and  a  large,  ornamental  pile 
of  the  same  kind  of  bottles  was  heaped  upon  the  cases 
in  the  store  at  Irkutsk.  And  in  a  Cossack  village,  on  the 
frontier  borders  of  civilization  itself,  the  same  provision 
for  this  national  taste  was  found. 

Few  world-travellers  will  ever  again  take  the  journey 
by  boat  down  the  Shilka  and  Amur  rivers.  Most  if  not 
all  of  them  will  run  right  through  from  Moscow  to  Dalni 
or  Port  Arthur,  for  the  line  is  finished  now.  But  in  all 
Siberia,  in  all  Russia,  no  such  opportunity  offers  itself 
to  observe  Russian  character  as  on  one  of  the  hard  trips 
down  the  Shilka  and  Amur,  for  a  thousand  miles  or  so, 
when  the  water  is  low,  for  both  of  these  rivers  are  filled 
with  sand-bars  on  which  every  few  hours  the  boat  is 
grounded.  If  the  water  is  falling,  no  inducement  can 
persuade  the  captain  to  proceed  at  nightfall,  but  at  every 
sunset  the  vessel  ties  up  to  the  shore  until  morning. 

Remember  that  every  boat  is  as  crowded  with  emi- 
grants as  a  box  is  with  sardines,  so  much  so  that  they 
sleep  on  the  floor  and  the  roof  of  the  vessel,  very  much 
as  sardines  are  arranged  in  their  packages.  It  is  an  even 
chance  that  you  will  run  into  forest -fires.  In  summer 
the  heat  will  melt  you.  If  the  fires  are  raging  within  a 
fev  miles,  the  heavy,  acrid  smoke  smarts  the  eye  and  irri- 
tates the  nostril.  On  the  boat  are  sure  to  be  one  or  two 
Russian  soldiers  in  uniform  and  from  ten  to  a  score  of 
others  in  peasant's  garb,  on  their  way  to  join  the  al- 
ready vast  military  Russian  host  massing  on  the  Pacific 
for  the  expected  conflict  with  Japan.     Every  month  or 

235 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

two  a  party  of  generals,  a  "commission"  of  officials, 
perhaps  even  a  highly  educated  and  cultivated  Russian 
lady  will  constitute  a  party,  which  gives  to  the  best-read 
and  most  widely  travelled  foreigner  all  the  mental  society 
he  can  possibly  digest. 

For  days  and  weeks,  sometimes  even  stretching  into 
months,  this  monotonous  progress  continues.  There  are 
all  the  conditions  of  vexation.  Frequently  all  the  pas- 
sengers, except  the  high  officials,  are  ordered  to  travel 
over  some  mountain,  while  the  boat,  thus  lightened,  at- 
tempts to  glide  over  some  particularly  shallow  stretches 
of  riverway.  Protests?  Not  one.  Complaints?  Not 
one.  Grumblings?  Not  a  murmur.  Everything  is  laugh 
and  jest  and  good -humor.  Where  a  similar  crowd  of 
Americans  or  Englishmen  would  hold  indignation  meet- 
ings, these  Russians  accept  the  situation  almost  with 
gayety.  Children  may  be  bom  on  the  journey ;  nobody 
thinks  of  the  discomfort  caused  by  the  new  arrival.  The 
little  fellow  is  quite  welcome.  It  is  an  occasion  of  rejoic- 
ing.    Congratulations  pour  in  upon  the  fortunate  mother. 

"  I  should  think  you  would  object  to  this  crowding  and 
hardship,"  was  remarked  to  a  vigorous  young  fellow,  al- 
ready the  head  of  a  considerable  family. 

"Object?  Why?"  he  answered.  "It  is  all  in  a  life- 
time.    We  are  enjoying  ourselves  very  well." 

At  one  place  the  peasants  crowded  about  a  little  pile 
of  stones  above  which  rose  a  rough  wooden  cross.  Here 
had  died  and  was  buried  one  of  the  peasant  immigrants 
who  preceded  them.  In  the  wilderness,  thousands  of 
miles  from  anybody  or  any  place,  reposed  his  bones.  The 
peasants  gathered  reverently  around  the  grave  of  their 
unknown  fellow-journeyer  to  a  far  home. 

"Very  sad,  very  pathetic,  is  it  not?"  remarked  the  in- 
terpreter, on  a  suggestion  from  his  employer,  to  some  of 
the  peasants  with  whom  he  had  been  told  to  fraternize 
and  with  whom  he  had  fraternized  successfully. 

"Why,  no,"  came  the  answer.     "All  is  as  God  wills." 

236 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

And  thus  again  on  the  banks  of  the  Amur  spoke  the 
fatalism  of  the  Slav — his  acceptance  of  the  universal  and 
the  inevitable,  his  attribution  to  the  great  Father  above, 
whom  he  worships  with  instinctive  devotion,  if  not  with 
intelligent  understanding,  of  all  that  befalls  the  individual 
and  the  race. 

"God  gave  me  three  little  mushrooms  this  morning," 
said  a  peasant  woman  in  south  Russia,  as  she  sat  milking 
her  cow  by  the  side  of  a  pleasant  stream.  She  had  found 
three  mushrooms,  but  "God  gave  me  three  little  mush- 
rooms this  morning,"  quoth  she. 

"  How  many  children  have  you?"  was  asked  of  the  wife 
of  a  working-man  in  one  of  St.  Petersburg's  factories. 

"  God  has  given  me  five,"  she  answered.  "  And  whether 
I  am  blessed  with  more  is  as  God  wills." 

"As  God  wills,"  "God  gave,"  etc.  In  the  capital  of 
the  Czar,  in  the  peasant  village  of  the  country,  on  the 
emigrant  boat  on  the  Amur,  around  the  grave  of  one 
of  the  swelling  host  of  Slav  emigration  in  the  Siberian 
wilderness,  everywhere  and  always  this  is  the  common 
speech  and  thought  of  the  Russian  people. 

The  hardihood  of  the  Russian  man  and  woman  has  al- 
ready several  times  been  noted.  Here  is  another  instance : 
On  top  of  the  broad,  flat  roof  of  the  boat  on  the  Amur 
you  may  see  peasant  women  fast  asleep  in  the  blazing 
sun,  without  the  slightest  protection  from  its  rays.  They 
do  not  appear  to  notice  it.  Transport  yourself  now  back 
to  central  Russia.  Go  again  into  the  country  districts. 
You  will  see  women  at  work  in  the  fields,  as  you  will, 
indeed,  all  over  Europe  or,  for  that  matter,  in  some  places 
in  our  own  country.  But  in  Russia  it  is  not  uncommon 
to  see  a  woman,  weary  with  her  labor,  lie  down  and  go 
fast  asleep  by  the  road-side.  That  it  is  a  cloudless  sky 
and  a  fiery  day  make  no  clifTercnce  to  her. 

And  true  as  this  is  of  the  vv^omen,  it  is,  of  course,  much 
truer  of  the  men.  It  would  seem  that  the  Russian  has 
such  nerves  that  he  can  sleep  anywhere  or  under  any 

«37 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

conditions.  On  a  passenger  train  from  Tien-Tsin  to 
Pekin,  operated  by  military  authority  (tlie  conduct  of 
the  railway  having  not  yet  been  handed  back  after  the 
Boxer  troubles  to  its  accustomed  operators),  were  several 
officers  of  different  nationahties.  There  was  nothing  for 
them  to  do.  Nevertheless,  all  were  alert,  nervously  alive, 
full  of  complaints — all  but  one.  That  one  was  a  Russian 
colonel.  He  came  in  and,  rolhng  his  coat  into  a  pillow, 
stretched  himself  on  a  bench  and  was  almost  instantly  in 
profound  slumber.  Perhaps  he  was  trying  to  overhear 
the  general  conversation?  Put  a  bridle  upon  your  in- 
stinctive suspicion  of  the  Russian;  the  colonel  was  doing 
nothing  of  the  kind.  He  was  merely  sleeping  the  sleep 
of  the  Slav. 

And  the  sleep  of  the  Slav  is  not  the  sleep  of  the  just 
or  the  unjust,  but  the  slumber  of  a  thoroughly  healthy 
physical  organization  with  untroubled  nerves.  Every 
peasant  home  throughout  all  the  Russias  has  one  char- 
acteristic necessity  —  it  is  a  great  stove  built  of  brick. 
Its  top  is  flat  and  far  broader  than  necessary  for  any  pur- 
poses to  which  we  put  stoves  in  this  country.  But  the 
Russian  peasant  family  has  a  different  use  for  it.  They 
sleep  on  it  in  the  bitter  nights  of  the  Russian  and  Siberian 
winter.  At  the  same  time  every  possible  crack  or  crevice 
which  will  admit  the  outside  air  is  carefully  sealed.  Yet 
in  this  vitiated  atmosphere,  where  an  American  would 
find  it  hard  to  breathe,  the  Russian  peasant,  his  wife,  and 
children  sleep  refreshingly.  No  other  lungs  or  nerves 
but  those  of  a  Russian  could  stand  it. 

These  instances  will  give  you  some  idea  of  the  physical 
vigor  of  these  people  and  of  their  capacity  to  resist  those 
influences  which  would  be  unbearable  to  an  American. 
But  it  again  calls  to  mind  the  fact  that  the  unhygienic 
conditions  prevailing  throughout  Russia  and  Siberia  kill 
off  all  but  the  very  hardiest  of  infants,  and  thus  leave 
only  the  steel-wire  constitutions  surviving.  Perhaps  it 
is  this  weeding  out  of  the  naturally  weak  and  decrepit 

238 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

which  has  made  and  is  making  of  the  Russian  people  a 
nation  of  amazing  physical  vigor.  But  whatever  the 
cause,  the  vitality  and  strength  exist  and  is  national. 

In  trying  to  form  an  opinion  of  the  quality  of  people 
which  are  being  reared  by  Russia  on  the  Siberian  plains, 
the  criminal  or  exile  element  has  been  overestimated. 
Conceding  the  truth  of  the  worst  pictures  drawn  of  this 
unhappy  phase  of  this  new  empire  of  the  Czar  (and  the 
picture  has  been  painted  to  us  in  blacker  colors  than  all 
the  facts  justify),  still  the  exile  element  will  be  literally 
submerged  by  the  peasant  inundation  now  pouring  over 
Siberia.  Indeed,  it  has  been  overwhelmed  even  now, 
and  exiles  to  Siberia  are,  numerically  speaking,  a  com- 
paratively small  portion  of  the  people  of  this  new  land. 

Nor  are  the  conditions  of  the  prisoners  who  are  ex- 
pelled from  Russia  so  bad  as  one  expects  to  find  them. 
For  example,  the  student  who  deliberately  murdered  the 
Minister  of  Public  Instruction  in  St.  Petersburg  about 
three  years  ago  was  found  on  one  of  the  prison-boats  of 
the  Amur.  These  prison-boats  are,  doubtless,  very  un- 
comfortable, but  they  are  by  no  means  impossible ;  at  least 
it  must  have  so  appeared  to  the  prisoners  themselves,  for 
behind  their  bars  they  were  laughing  and  joking  in  quite 
a  good-natured  way. 

The  student  murderer  of  one  of  the  Czar's  ministers 
seemed  to  be  in  particularly  high  spirits. 

"  I  expect  to  be  out  in  a  year  or,  at  the  most,  two  years," 
said  he. 

If  you  are  astonished  at  finding  a  murderer  and  a  slayer 
of  one  of  the  highest  officials  of  the  empire  in  a  prison- 
boat  instead  of  on  a  gallows,  you  are  brought  startlingly 
face  to  face  with  a  fact  peculiar  to  Russian  jurisprudence 
(a  fact  all  of  us  might  well  have  known  had  we  taken  time 
to  read,  but  which  hardly  any  of  us  do  know),  and  that 
fact  is  that  there  is  no  capital  punishment  in  Russia.  At 
least,  this  is  so  generally  true  that  it  may  be  stated  to  be 
universal. 

239 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

If  the  condition  of  the  exiles  on  prison -boats  is  fairly 
good,  so  much  cannot  be  said  for  the  prisoners  in  the  prison- 
cars  which  the  railway  transjjorts.  The  condition  of  the 
prisoners  in  these  cars  would  be  very  hard,  indeed,  f(jr  an 
American.  But  that  does  not  mean  that  they  are  hard  for 
a  Russian,  for,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  the  Russian  can 
endure  in  every  condition  of  life  thinj^s  which  to  the 
American  would  be  unbearable.  So  it  is  not  n(;rcss,'i.ry 
to  say  more  of  the  prison-cars  observed  on  the  Siberian 
line  tlian  that  they  would  be  thought  in  America  to  be 
very  bad,  although  from  a  casual  inspection  of  the 
jjrisoners  being  transported  in  them  they  do  not  appear 
to  be  highly  objectionable  to  their  Russian  inmates. 

It  must  be  stated,  however,  that  no  careful  examination 
of  this  subject  was  made,  but  the  comparison  by  Professor 
Wright,  in  his  two  admirable  and  scientific  volumes,  Asiatic 
Rtissid,  of  conditions  in  Russian  prisons  with  the  ntjjorts 
of  i^rison  officers  in  the  United  States  of  the  cfjndition  (;f 
prisons  here,  shows  that,  relatively  speaking,  American 
prison  conditions  and  Russian  jjrison  conditions  are  not 
so  widely  different  after  all.  And  uj)on  such  slight  <'iiid 
surface  observations  as  the  writer  made  this  view  ap- 
peared to  be  confirmed. 

Furthermore,  it  must  be  remembered  that  not  all  of 
the  exiles  to  Siberia  are  sent  there  by  the  Russian  govern- 
ment on  its  own  initiative.  Many — inde(;r],  the  majority 
— are  expelled  by  their  own  villages  in  Russia.  It  is  a 
sort  of  "rogue  elephant"  process  by  which  the  peasant 
communities  ejec;t  their  bad  and  imijossible  members. 
Furthermore,  when  the  ban  of  banishment  is  over  ,'uid 
the  exile  returns  to  his  home,  his  village  has  the  riglit 
to  say  whether  it  will  receive  him  again  or  not,  and  this 
is  true  whether  he  has  been  sent  to  Siberia  under  a 
judgment  of  the  court  or  by  direct  order  of  the  Czar  or 
by  the  village  community  itself. 

If  upon  his  return  his  village  community  refuses  to  re- 
ceive him  again,  that  fact  settles  that  man's  case  with 

240 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  govemnuMit,  whicli.  without  further  investigation,  im- 
mediately orders  his  return  to  Siberia.  In  this  way  large 
numbers  of  exiles  are  sent  to  Siberia  by  what  is  called  the 
"administrative  process" — that  is,  by  direct  order  of  the 
government,  and  yet  without  the  goveniment  having 
anything  more  to  do  with  it  than  to  ratify  the  decision 
of  the  comnmne  to  which  the  exile  belongs.  But  even 
taking  all  this  into  account,  the  total  exile  element, 
both  past  and  present,  is  inconsiderable  among  the  in- 
creasing millions  of  the  sturdier  and  more  upright  men 
and  woiiien  who  are  voluntarily  going  to  Siberia  to  erect 
homes,  cultivate  fields,  rear  children,  plant  communities, 
and  build  empires. 

t6 


XVII 

THE    RED    DAY    OF    BLAGOVESTCHENSK 

NOW  for  the  crowning  "infamy"  of  recent  Russian 
history  in  the  Far  East.  You  will  know  at  once 
that  the  massacre  of  the  Chinese  at  Blagovestchensk  in 
1900  is  referred  to.  The  writer  sifted  this  "crime"  from 
every  point  of  view  and  by  means  of  every  source  of  in- 
formation he  was  able  to  approach.  The  accounts  were 
received  of  attorneys  from  the  courts,  hands  in  factories, 
clerks  in  banks  and  mercantile  houses,  who  formed  part 
of  the  volunteer  company  of  citizens  quickly  organized, 
just  as  citizens  would  organize  here  in  Ameiica  under  like 
circumstances.  A  Russian  colonel  of  almost  Anglo-Saxon 
independence  and  enterprise  gave  his  account  of  the  event. 
A  Cossack  officer  told  all  he  had  seen.  A  voluminous  re- 
cital was  listened  to  from  a  well  -  informed  lawyer.  In 
Blagovestchensk  pamphlets  had  been  written  on  this  cir- 
cumstance which  "shocked  civilization,"  for  you  must 
know  that  this  event  is  quite  the  most  important  and 
dramatic  in  the  history  of  this  thriving  and  modern 
commercial  Siberian  city.  There  were  many  differences 
of  detail,  but  all  accounts  agreed  upon  the  main  facts. 
And  here  they  are: 

The  town  of  Blagovestchensk  is  unprotected  by  forti- 
fications. While  there  are  considerable  barracks  there, 
there  was  at  the  time  of  the  outbreak  but  five  hundred 
Russian  soldiers  stationed  near  the  city.  Within  the 
city  itself  were  several  thousand  Chinese.  Immediately 
across  the  river  was  Chinese  territory — Manchuria.  A 
Chinese  town  stood  directly  over  the  river  from  Blago- 

242 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

vestchensk.  So  much  for  locations.  Now  for  the 
event. 

First  of  all,  Russian  boats  were  fired  on  from  the  Chinese 
shores  when  approaching  the  Russian  town  from  the  east- 
Before  this,  for  days,  rumors  of  Chinese  uprising,  some- 
how or  other,  were  in  the  air.  The  Chinese  in  Blagovest- 
chensk  were  observed  to  neglect  their  work  and  gather 
in  groups.  As  the  days  passed  they  were  seen  to  be 
laboring  under  some  unexplained  excitement.  Then 
threats  and  hootings  came  from  the  Chinese  side.  The 
business  community  of  Blagovestchensk  began  to  be 
seized  with  vague  fears.  The  great  Boxer  disturbance,  in- 
volving many  millions  of  the  yellow  men,  had  been  pre- 
paring for  months  and  was  on  the  verge  of  being  ignited. 
These  Russians  in  Blagovestchensk  were  right  up  against 
the  fuse  of  this  awful  Oriental  bomb,  whose  explosion, 
when  it  came,  reverberated  around  the  world.  That 
psychic  intelligence  which  somehow  conveys  the  purpose 
of  a  great  mass  of  human  beings  to  other  imperilled  hu- 
man beings  fairly  saturated  this  community,  comparative- 
ly trivial  in  numbers.  Then  came  the  firing  of  artillery 
from  the  Chinese  town  across  the  river  directly  into 
Blagovestchensk.  About  this  there  is  absolute  agree- 
ment on  all  hands.  This  was  accompanied  by  the  firing 
of  musketry  and  with  it  wild  demonstrations  on  the 
Chinese  side. 

Then  with  the  culmination  of  the  fears  of  the  people 
of  Blagovestchensk  came,  almost  simultaneously,  reports 
that  Chinese  had  landed  both  below  and  above  the  town. 
The  fears  of  the  Russian  business-men  and  working-men, 
and  all  the  citizens  of  Blagovestchensk,  rose  to  a  panic. 
What  to  do  was  the  question.  Their  homes,  their  wives, 
their  children— how  could  they  be  saved?  Was  another 
Chinese  butchery  such  as  had  more  than  once  before 
horrified  the  world  to  again  occur  in  this  unprotected  spot, 
with  thousands  of  unprotected  citizens  and  their  families 
as  the  victims?     And  these  fears  were  far  more  to  those 

243 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

who  lived  shoulder  to  shoulder  and  face  to  face  and  breath 
to  breath  with  the  danger  than  they  appear  to  us  be- 
tween whom  and  the  terror  an  ocean  rolled. 

"  Intelligence,"  which  may  have  been  only  a  rumor,  was 
received  that  the  Chinese  governor  had  marched  large 
bodies  of  troops  to  the  frontier  immediately  opposite  the 
Russian  town.  If  the  Chinese  in  Blagovestchensk  com- 
bined with  those  on  the  opposite  shore,  and  a  juncture 
was  made  with  the  Chinese  forces  reported  to  have  been 
landed  on  the  Russian  side,  the  destruction  of  the  little 
Russian  city  appeared  to  its  citizens  to  be  inevitable. 
At  least  that  is  the  way  they  reasoned.  Immediately 
everybody  flew  to  arms.  The  shops  were  closed,  business 
suspended.  Merchants,  bankers,  clerks,  artisans  formed 
a  military  company.  Any  kind  of  weapon  that  would 
shoot  any  kind  of  a  ball  was  utilized.  The  Chinese  in 
the  city  itself  were  driven  by  the  few  Cossacks  down  to 
the  river's  edge  below  the  town  and  forced  into  the  river. 
Three  or  four  thousand  of  them  perished. 

For  weeks  the  bombardment  of  Blagovestchensk  from 
the  Chinese  city  continued.  You  may  now  see  the  bul- 
let-marks made  in  the  walls  of  the  home  of  the  local 
governor.  Many  houses  of  Blagovestchensk  still  show 
these  signs  of  actual  peril.  Finally  reinforcements  ar- 
rived, the  Russians  crossed  the  river,  and  literally  wiped 
the  Chinese  town  off  the  face  of  the  earth.  You  may  visit 
its  site  now,  but  you  will  see  nothing  but  waving  grass 
and  here  and  there  the  demolished  remains  of  the  crum- 
bling wall  of  a  house.  Such,  stripped  of  its  many  varia- 
tions, is  the  story  of  the  great  "massacre"  of  the  Chinese 
by  the  Russians  of  Blagovestchensk  in  1900  which  made 
the  world  "shudder."  Highly  colored  anti-Russian  ac- 
counts of  this  atrocity  were  published  broadcast  among 
mankind;  but  the  narrative  as  here  given  is  as  nearly 
accurate  as  anybody  can  get  it.  Not  only  Russian  sources 
of  information  but  sources  distinctly  anti  -  Russian  were 
availed  of,  and  cross-examination  in  the  form  of  peasant 

244 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

conversation  in  every  instance  confirmed  in  large  sub- 
stance the  above  general  description.  And  none  but  eye- 
witnesses were  interviewed. 

So  much  space  has  been  given  to  this  incident  because 
of  the  tremendous  publicity  given  to  it  and  the  distortion 
of  all  of  its  features,  and  because,  too,  it  is  a  very  fair  illus- 
tration of  the  manner  in  which  any  incident  of  Russian 
advance  is  painted  to  the  American  and  European  world. 
When  we  hear  of  Russian  outrages  we  must  always  bear 
in  mind  that  while  it  may  well  be  that  all  of  their  bloody 
details  are  entirely  true,  yet  the  chances  are  that  the  for- 
bidding aspects  of  each  affair  are  magnified. 

There  are  plenty  of  things  for  which  the  Russians  as 
individuals  and  as  a  nation  may  be  criticised  without 
stretching  the  truth  about  them.  The  plain  facts,  as  far 
as  they  can  be  obtained,  are  always  best.  Misrepresenta- 
tion, no  matter  what  may  be  its  momentary  effect,  is  sure 
to  be  exposed  by  that  great  revealer  of  all  things,  events, 
and  therefore  is  sure  to  react  in  favor  of  its  victim. 

In  this  connection  it  is  useful  to  know  that  the  Boxer 
uprising  had  its  first  physical  manifestation  in  Manchuria. 
As  has  been  detailed  in  another  chapter,  the  Russians 
had  secured  a  concession  to  build  the  Manchurian  rail- 
way. Work  had  begun,  the  whole  survey  had  been  made, 
much  grading  had  been  done,  many  scores,  perhaps 
hundreds,  of  miles  of  rail  had  been  laid.  Immediately 
before  the  Chinese  attack  on  Blagovestchensk  signs  of 
an  uprising  became  unmistakable  throughout  all  Man- 
churia. Finally  the  uprising  occurred,  beginning  at 
Blagovestchensk;  but  it  was  almost  simultaneous  every- 
where throughout  the  provinces  which  make  up  Man- 
churia. 

The  railroad  was  destroyed,  homes  and  buildings  were 
demolished  by  the  infuriated  and  fanatical  Boxers,  and 
horrible  outrages  were  committed  upon  every  Russian 
who  fell  into  the  yellow  fanatics'  hands.  Whatever  may 
be  said  of  the  cruelty  of  the  five  hundred  Cossacks  who 

245 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

drove  three  or  four  thousand  Chinamen  into  the  river  at 
Blagovestchensk,  the  other  side  must  be  stated,  that 
everywhere  throughout  Manchuiia  the  Russian  railway 
laborers,  officers  and  troops  guarding  them,  retired  in 
good  order,  protecting  and  bringing  with  them,  at  their 
own  imminent  peril,  considerable  numbers  of  Chinese 
converts  whom  the  Russians  refused  to  abandon  to 
the  mercy  of  the  military  mobs  of  their  fellow-country- 
men. 

Indeed,  it  is  worth  repeating  that  not  a  Christian  China- 
man in  Manchuria  whose  life  it  was  possble  to  save  was 
deserted  by  their  fellow-Christians  the  Russians. 

That  certain  Chinese  high  officials  participated  in  this 
anti-foreign  outbreak  the  whole  world  is,  of  course,  now 
thoroughly  informed.  The  Boxer  uprising  is  the  origin 
of  the  military  occupation  of  Manchuria  by  the  Russians, 
which  continues  to  this  day  and  probably  will  continue 
until  both  China  and  the  world  concede  that  Manchuria  is 
Russian  territory.  From  this  military  occupation,  whose 
purpose  was  to  restore  order  and  to  begin  again  the  work 
of  building  the  railroad,  followed  the  necessity  of  extermi- 
nating the  robber  bands,  the  story  of  which  has  already 
been  told  in  earlier  chapters. 

The  sale  of  ploughs,  reapers,  and  threshers  at  Blagovest- 
chensk and  other  Siberian  towns  means  two  things  of  im- 
portance. The  first  is  that  the  Russian  farmer  in  Siberia 
is  emancipating  himself  from  the  old  methods  of  agricult- 
ure, which  has  been  and  is  such  a  drawback  to  Russian 
farming  on  the  one  hand ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  that  he 
is  little  by  little  breaking  away  from  the  system  of  farm- 
ing in  common  which  immemorially  has  prevailed  among 
the  Slavs.  This  last  emancipation,  however,  is  very,  very 
slow — hardly  perceptible,  indeed — and  may  not  continue. 
It  must  be  here  again  repeated  that  in  Russia,  and  even 
in  Siberia,  the  land  heretofore  has  been  held  by  a  com- 
munity in  common,  each  head  of  a  house  having  so  much 
soil  apportioned  to  his  family  as  his  share;  and  so  im- 

246 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

portant  is  this  fact  that  attention  will  be  called  to  it  many 
times  hereafter. 

Accompanying  this  system  of  agriculture  is  crudity  of 
method,  ancient  and  necessarily  inferior  implements,  and 
rapid  exhaustion  of  soil.  In  Siberia,  with  its  vast  extent 
of  land  and  its  paucity  of  population,  natural  conditions 
are  beginning  to  change  this,  and  so  there  is  more  room 
for  the  American  plough,  reaper,  thresher,  cultivator. 
How  far  this  process  will  continue  when  Siberia  shall  be- 
come more  thickly  populated  is  a  subject  for  speculation, 
and  therefore  each  reader  may  form  his  own  conclusions. 
Of  course,  the  modern  ploughs,  reapers,  and  threshers  are 
used,  and  increasingly,  by  the  Russian  agricultural  com- 
mune as  such,  the  only  difference  being  that  the  machines 
are  bought  by  the  community  and  used  and  owned  in 
common. 

From  Blagovestchensk  to  Khabaroff  is,  by  river,  an 
interesting  journey  of  many  hundreds  of  miles.  Khabaroff 
itself  is  of  no  commercial  importance;  it  is  the  political 
and  military  capital  of  Trans-Baikal  Siberia.  Here  are 
immense  barracks  for  troops  who  are  stationed  at  this 
point  in  large  numbers  at  all  times.  Here  is  the  head- 
quarters of  Governor  -  General  Grodekoff,  in  1901  the 
autocrat  of  Pacific  Russia.  As  a  description  of  this 
remarkable  man  has  been  given  elsewhere,  and  as  he 
alone  is  worthy  of  note  in  Khabaroff,  excepting  only 
the  immense  numbers  of  Russian  troops  there,  let  us 
rather  give  a  paragraph  to  the  much-talked-of  Ussuri 
littoral. 

For  many  miles  north  of  Vladivostock  this  extensive 
strip  of  coast  territory  is  the  Russian  granary  of  the  Far 
East.  In  comparison  with  Siberia  it  appears  to  be  well 
settled.  My  observation  was  that  the  Russian  peasant 
is  here  fairly  prosperous  and  well  content.  A  curious 
phenomenon  has  occurred  in  this  region.  On  the  advent 
of  the  Russian  it  was  occupied  by  Chinese  agriculturists. 
These  were  driven  out,  not  by  force,  but  as  an  inferior 

247 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

race  naturally  disappears  before  a  superior  people.  And 
yet  within  the  last  few  years  the  Chinese  farmer  has 
been  reinvading  the  Ussuri  littoral — very  humbly,  mod- 
estly, inconspicuously,  it  is  true.  He  takes  up  a  small 
piece  of  ground,  cultivates  it  with  the  intensive  method 
prevailing  in  China,  and  is  successfully  content  and 
well-to-do  so  far  as  could  be  observed  or  learned.  He 
is  unmolested  and  happy  under  the  equal  protection 
which  the  government  extends  to  him  as  well  as  the 
Russian  settler;  and  this,  too,  notwithstanding  the  well- 
grounded  fear  that  he  will  in  turn,  by  his  thrift  and 
more  intelligent  industry,  oust  the  Russian  farmer.  How- 
ever, he  is  there  in  such  very  small  numbers  at  present, 
and  so  unobtrusively,  that  perhaps  that  peculiar  Russian 
lethargy  v/hich  encases  Russian  apprehension  has  not  yet 
been  broken. 

Nikolsk,  not  far  to  the  north  of  Vladivostock,  is  the 
centre  of  this  notable  grain  district.  Here  was  found 
Tugovitch,  chief  engineer  of  the  Manchurian  railway,  the 
illuminating  conversation  with  whom  has  already  been 
recited.  The  description  of  this  town,  by  even  fair- 
minded  Englishmen  in  serious  publications,  is  hardly 
judicial.  Its  temporary  character,  its  straggling  nature, 
etc.,  are  extensively  dwelt  upon.  It  is  forgotten  that 
this  is  decidedly  a  frontier  community.  Just  opinion  can 
be  obtained  only,  by  comparison  with  a  like  place  in 
America  under  like  conditions.  Such  comparisons  will 
reveal  the  fact  that  the  development  is  about  the  same. 
Here  again,  as  has  been  noted,  American  agricultural 
implements  v/ere  found  on  sale,  and  the  merchants  said 
that  the  demand  was  steadily  increasing. 

Did  not  the  Irkutsk  merchant  say  that  a  circus  would 
be  found  some  place  in  Siberia?    Well,  why  not  in  Nikolsk? 

The  stranger  within  the  walls  was  "put  up"  at  the 
home  and  store  of  some  vigorous  young  German  mer- 
chants. The  chief  of  the  establishments  was  absent  early 
in  the  evening.     Where  was  he? 

248 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

"Why,  at  the  circus,  I  think." 
"Circus!     Have  you  a  circus  here  m  Nikolsk?" 
"Why ,  certainly,  about  a  block  down,  across  the  street." 
A  stroll  in  that  direction  revealed  the  great  white  tents 
for  horses  and  all  the  other  familiar  sights  connected 
with  this  itinerant  and  encamped  form  of  amusement 
seen  in  our  owm  country.     The  acrobats  were  the  same, 
the  horses  the  same,  everything  the  same.     But  for  the 
foreign  speech  you  might  well  have  imagined  yourself  in 
the  suburb  of  one  of  our  American  cities  on  a  summer 
night  when  "the  circus  comes  to  town." 

But  the  ordinary  traveller  never  stops  at  Nikolsk.  The 
man  who  is  going  to  write  a  book  stops  here ;  but  even  he, 
so  far  as  observed,  never  penetrates  the  secrets  of  this 
really  remarkable  place.  Go  some  distance  out  of  town 
in  a  certain  direction  and  mighty  buildings  come  upon 
your  view.  They  are  the  barracks  already  described, 
capable  of  quartering  thousands  of  soldiers.  Go  farther 
and  you  come  into  a  delightful  little  town,  all  to  itself, 
hidden,  until  you  are  within  its  gates,  by  some  ancient 
Chinese  mud  wall  not  yet  demolished.  This  is  the  mili- 
tary settlement,  the  homes  of  the  officers  and  their  families, 
and  in  the  centre  the  residence  of  the  commander  of  the 
post.  Personal  observation  of  some  of  our  military 
"forts"  and  "outposts"  on  the  plains,  some  twenty 
years  ago,  compels  the  statement  that  these  Russian 
officers  in  Nikolsk  are  far  more  comfortably  housed  and 
cared  for  than  our  American  officers  under  like  circum- 
stances were  in  the  early  eighties. 

And  now  for  Vladivostock.  We  are  used  to  think  of  it 
as  a  barren,  ice-bound  Russian  military  post;  but  in 
summer  time,  at  least,  it  is  a  place  of  surpassing  love- 
liness. The  Russians  claim  (and  the  careful  observer 
who  critically  visits  all  its  surroundings  is  compelled 
to  admit  the  probability  of  the  claim)  that  from  a  naval 
and  military  point  of  view  it  is  the  most  impregnable 
spot  on  the  shores  of  any  sea.     It  is  the  naval  head- 

249 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

quarters  of  the  Asiatic  fleet.  Until  now  it  has  been 
Russia's  single  outlet  on  the  Pacific,  and,  conversely, 
the  one  entrepot  from  the  ocean  to  Russia  from  the  east. 
The  Russo-Chinese  Bank  has  here  a  very  handsome  estab- 
lishment; and  the  manager  in  charge  of  this  bank  in  1901 
was  a  person  of  conspicuous  keenness,  highly  equipped 
for  his  work.  Large  stores  are  present  in  numbers, 
which  suggests  a  much  heavier  purchasing  population 
than  exists  in  the  city  or  in  the  surrounding  country. 
The  streets  are  well  paved,  the  docks  are  well  built, 
and  the  dry-dock  at  Vladivostock  is  one  of  the  largest 
and  finest  in  the  world.  Rising  swiftly  from  the  water's 
edge,  the  view  from  a  war-ship  in  the  bay  is  one  of 
gratifying  loveliness. 

"Will  you  not  go  to  the  opera?"  was  the  courteous 
invitation  of  a  Vladivostock  gentleman.  And  the  opera! 
It  was  midsummer,  and  yet  here  in  Vladivostock,  the  city 
of  snows,  a  very  competent  company  were  presenting  a 
light  opera  of  the  same  character  that  you  will  see  in 
Berlin,  Moscow,  or  Chicago.  In  no  respect  was  the 
opera-house  different  in  interior  arrangements  from  the 
common  type  seen  in  America.  Only  the  auditors  were 
different,  for  everywhere  were  the  white  coats  of  Russian 
officials.  In  a  stage  box  sat  the  uniformed  Governor, 
heartily  applauding.  He  is  a  Cossack  whose  liberal 
ideas  and  advanced  methods  surprise  an  American. 
His  distinction  of  manner,  the  genuine  kindliness  of  his 
nature,  his  sincere  courtesy,  and,  above  all,  his  accom- 
plished tactfulness,  render  him  particularly  useful  to  the 
government  as  the  first  high  Russian  representative 
whom  foreigners  meet  on  entering  the  empire  from  the 
west,  and  the  last  high  Russian  representative  he  leaves 
on  departing  from  the  empire  towards  the  east;  for  he 
"makes  a  good  impression,"  and  that  is  a  thing  not  to 
be  despised.  He  is  heartily,  openly,  aggressively  Amer- 
ican. Heartily  American,  yes ;  but  more  heartily  Russian, 
of  course.     And  be  it  noted  that  every  Russian,  gentle- 

250 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

man  or  soldier,  noble,  peasant,  or  merchant,  officer  or 
civilian,  is  Russian,  and  again  Russian,  and  always 
Russian.  They  have  no  foreign  sympathies;  but,  keeping 
this  in  mind,  their  heart  friendship  is  universally  Amer- 
ican.    It  is  never  English.     It  is  distinctly  anti-English. 

"Why  are  no  English  sympathizers  ever  found  among 
the  educated  classes  of  Russia?"  was  asked  of  a  gentle- 
man of  a  certain  non-Russian  nationality,  who  himself 
had  a  score  of  years  of  familiarity  with  all  classes  in  the 
empire,  and  who  was  decidedly  "against  the  govern- 
ment." 

"Why,  it  is  plain  enough,"  said  he.  "The  English  have 
been  Russia's  enemies  for  centuries.  Everywhere  it  has 
been  England  who  has  blocked  Russians  in  the  Far  East. 
And  her  Far  Eastern  progress  Russia  deems  an  inevitable 
movement  and  her  divine  right.  Then,  again,  the  Rus- 
sians claim  that  the  English  have  persistently  misrepre- 
sented them.  The  Russian  attributes  to  the  English  the 
bad  opinion  which  the  world  holds  of  him.  I  myself  am  a 
great  admirer  of  the  British  Empire.  Undoubtedly  it  is  the 
greatest  government  in  the  world.  Also,  you  know  that 
I  do  not  have  any  too  much  sympathy  with  the  Russians ; 
but  I  must  admit  that  the  grievance  of  the  Russians 
against  England  is  justified.  I  have  seen  reports  in 
English  newspapers  of  terrible  things  that  occurred  in 
Russia  at  a  time  and  place  where  I  myself  happened  to 
be  present.  And  these  reports  were  just  pure  imagina- 
tion. Of  course,"  he  continued,  "the  truth  is  bad  enough, 
but  the  English  seem  to  consider  it  a  religious  duty  to  prej- 
udice the  world  against  Russia  by  the  same  kind  of  stories 
with  which  peasant  women  frighten  their  children  when 
they  do  not  want  them  to  go  out  of  the  house." 

This  expression  is  given  neither  as  an  endorsement  nor 
denial  of  its  statement.  It  was  the  frank  comment  of  a 
credible  man  of  substance  and  probity,  and  is  given  for 
what  it  is  worth. 

Neither  is  the  Russian  friendly  at  heart  to  the  German. 

251 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

The  reason  is  clear  enough.  Germany  is  the  greatest  mili- 
tary organization  in  the  world,  and  night  and  day  menaces 
Russia's  western  frontier.  The  possibihty  of  war  with 
Germany  is  constantly  before  both  the  Russian  military 
authorities  and  the  German  cabinet.  It  is  not  forgotten, 
in  saying  this,  that  their  interests  in  the  Far  East  at  the 
present  time  are  identical ;  and  if  war  should  be  declared 
between  Russia  and  Japan,  that  Germany  would  be  de- 
cidedly friendly  to  Russia.  But  Russia  and  Germany 
have  so  long  looked  upon  conflict  of  interests  as  possible, 
and  even  probable,  that  deep  and  sincere  friendship  does 
not  exist,  notwithstanding  their  present  unity  of  policy 
in  China, 

America  and  Russia,  on  the  contrary,  have  always 
been  friendly.  The  American  people  are  a  young  people, 
and  the  Russian  regards  himself  as  quite  as  young  a 
man  as  the  American.  The  American  has  "go-ahead" 
in  his  make-up.  The  American  "gets  things  done." 
That  is  what  the  Russian  admires,  and  he  likes  to  think 
that  he  is  doing  the  same  thing.  So  there  is  a  natural 
friendship  on  the  part  of  Russians  for  Americans.  Such 
is  the  Russian  view. 

"Oh,  you  Americans  are  greatly  beloved  by  the  Rus- 
sians!" said  a  young  English  officer  in  Pekin.  "That  is, 
you  are  greatly  beloved  at  present.  But  there  is  no  real 
brotherhood  between  you,  and  cannot  be.  Language  and 
race  divide  you,  whereas  language  and  race  unite  the 
English  and  the  Americans.  Who  was  the  American 
naval  officer  that  said,  'Blood  is  thicker  than  water'? 
However,  Russia's  present  kindly  feeling  for  you  is  good 
for  the  next  fifty  years,  anyhow;  and  I  do  not  much  blame 
you  for  taking  national  advantage  of  it." 

"What  is  that  building?"  was  asked  of  the  Russian  ad- 
miral standing  on  the  deck  of  a  flag-ship  of  the  Russian 
Asiatic  fleet  stationed  at  Vladivostock. 

"That  is  our  University  of  Oriental  Languages." 

So  the  "university"  was  visited.     It  was  closed  at  that 

252 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

particular  period  of  the  year,  but  it  was  by  far  the  most 
important  item  of  interest  in  Vladivostock.  It  is  a  large 
structure  of  brick,  just  such  as  you  will  see  in  the  principal 
buildings  of  any  of  the  State  universities  of  our  various 
American  commonwealths.  It  was  founded  by  Grode- 
koff .  Here  the  Russian  and  Siberian  youth  intended  for 
consular,  diplomatic,  or  even  commercial  pursuits  are 
instructed  in  Oriental  languages;  and,  as  has  been  noted, 
such  is  the  Russian  facility  of  acquiring  foreign  tongues 
that  the  "university"  has  apt  students. 

Comment  has  been  made  of  the  strange  circumstance  of 
Russian  common  soldiers  carrying  on  intelligible  speech 
v/ith  Chinese  or  other  natives  in  less  than  a  month  from 
the  time  of  their  arrival.  Pokotiloff ,  general  manager  of 
the  Russo-Chinese  Bank  in  Asia,  and  the  right  hand  of 
Witte  in  the  Far  East,  speaks  English,  French,  German, 
Chinese,  Buriat,  and  all  the  various  dialects  of  north- 
central  Asia.  He  speaks  them,  too,  with  the  facility  of 
the  native  himself.  The  writer  can  testify  that  his  Eng- 
lish is  as  good  as  can  be  found  in  New  York  or  Boston — 
not  an  accent,  not  the  mispronunciation  or  the  slurring 
of  a  single  letter.  All  of  this  he  has  learned  without  in- 
structors. He  "picked  it  up,"  as  the  saying  is.  This  il- 
lustration might  be  extended  for  a  whole  page  of  instances. 
Enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  within  a  decade  Rus- 
sia will  have  in  the  Far  East  men  as  familiar  with  the 
languages  of  the  peoples  with  whom  she  deals,  and  as  care- 
fully instructed  in  Asiatic  politics  and  intrigue,  as  they  are 
profoundly  loyal  to  the  central  government  of  the  Czar. 


XVIII 

RUSSIAN    CAPITAL    AND    LABOR 

SO  it  seems  that  Siberia  is  not  all  prison,  Manchuria 
not  all  slaughter.  Constructive  industry  appears  to 
be  a  conspicuous  method  of  Russian  activity  in  the  latest 
fields  of  Slav  occupation.  Agricultural  productiveness 
the  processes  of  commerce,  and  even  some  of  the  politer 
elements  of  civilization  appear  to  be  predominant  in  what 
the  world  has  understood  to  be  Russia's  Botany  Bay. 
With  all  her  forts  and  fleets,  with  all  her  soldiers,  barracks, 
bayonets,  it  is  the  agriculturist,  the  artisan,  the  mer- 
chant, and  the  banker  who  already  seem  to  be  the 
principal  agencies  of  Russia's  energy  in  her  continental 
advance  on  the  Pacific. 

These  various  manifestations  of  labor  and  capital,  so 
noticeable  where  you  had  expected  to  find  nothing  but 
the  movement  of  troops  and  the  various  forms  of  military 
occupation,  suggest  that,  now  that  we  are  to  go  back  to 
our  starting-point  of  Russia  in  Europe,  the  industrial 
features  of  this  at  once  old  and  young  people  are  fuller 
of  meaning  and  interest  for  us  than  Russian  govern- 
ment or  Russian  art,  Russian  monuments  or  Russian 
history,  Russian  administrative  efficiency  or  the  reverse. 
The  Russian  capitalist  and  what  he  is  doing  is  of  more 
concern  to  us  than  the  spendthrift  noble.  The  Russian 
peasant,  his  condition  and  progress,  his  home  and  his 
habits,  mean  more  to  us  than  the  lives  of  men  and  women 
in  the  brilliant  society  of  St.  Petersburg. 

Let  us,  then,  take  up  modern  industrialism  in  Russia 
proper.      Let  us  consider  her  manufacturing  progress, 

254 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  condition  of  the  working  -  men  and  women  of  the 
empire,  and  in  general  the  economic  forces  in  Russia  her- 
self, whose  operations  we  have  noted  for  many  thousands 
of  miles  eastward  along  the  whole  extent  of  the  Asiatic 
shores  of  the  Pacific. 

Within  the  last  twenty  years  Russian  industrial  enter- 
prise has  rapidly  progressed.  Within  the  last  four  years 
its  growth  has  been  so  marked  that  the  calm  observer 
cannot  but  regard  it  as  forced,  and  therefore  unhealth- 
ful.  Indeed,  some  years  ago  Finance  Minister  Witte 
frankly  and  openly  stated  that  industrial  progress  in 
Russia  was  too  quick  and  sudden  to  be  sound;  and  the 
serious  depression  which  followed  soon  after  demon- 
strated the  correctness  of  his  view.  But,  the  panic  past, 
industrial  development  in  Russia  is  again  proceeding  with 
celerity.  Factories  have  sprung  up  all  over  the  empire. 
Foreign  capital  has  invested  in  industrial  establishments 
generously,  almost  wildly. 

Some  years  ago  a  peculiar  financial  enthusiasm  seemed 
to  seize  upon  European  capital  for  Russian  manufactur- 
ing exploitation.  Everybody  said  to  everybody  else  that 
here  was  a  great  empire  requiring  clothing,  machinery, 
food,  and  compelled  largely  to  import  all  but  the  latter. 
Surely,  it  was  reasoned,  here  was  virgin  soil  for  profitable 
manufacturing  plants  of  almost  every  kind.  Then,  again, 
the  present  policy  of  Russian  protection  was  adopted, 
which  is  as  complete  and  high-walled  as  that  of  the  United 
States.  And  when  a  tariff  fortification  is  built  around 
one  hundred  and  forty  millions  of  people  it  seemed  to  the 
European  investor  only  reasonable  that  the  manufacturer 
who  was  inside  of  it  must  necessarily  reap  rich  rewards. 

And  so  many  of  them  have.  Especially  the  Russian 
capitalists  who  have  built  factories  have  profited  heavily. 
Many  of  the  foreign  enterprises,  also,  have  realized  the 
dreams  of  their  promoters.  On  the  contrary,  within  the 
last  five  years,  a  large  number  of  the  establishments  built 
by  foreign  capital  have  proven  unprofitable,  and,  indeed, 

255 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

many  of  them  have  been  forced  into  liquidation.  The 
reasons  for  these  conflicting  industrial  phenomena  are  too 
complex  to  admit  of  their  intelligent  analysis  within  the 
limits  of  a  single  chapter,  or  indeed  a  single  volume. 
The  unfamiliarity  of  foreign  manufacturers  with  Russian 
labor  was  undoubtedly  one  cause.  Another  was  their 
failure  to  take  into  account  the  large  number  of  holi- 
days, which  in  Russia  are  an  institution,  and  which, 
up  to  the  present  time,  have  been  increasing.  Still  an- 
other was  the  foreign  operator's  ignorance  of  the  methods 
of  Russian  administration.  Again,  they  failed  to  under- 
stand how  to  get  their  goods  properly  on  the  market. 
Very  largely  also,  while  the  market  is  practically  in- 
exhaustible if  gradually  invaded,  it  is  nevertheless  a 
market  which  must  be  cultivated;  so  that  there  was  the 
economic  contradiction  of  a  great  potential  market  un- 
supplied  and  an  actual  and  realized  market  glutted  and 
congested.  Later  on  some  account  of  the  growth  and 
profitableness  of  various  Russian  industries  will  be  given, 
but  meanwhile  let  us  observe  the  instrument  of  all  this 
industry,  the  Russian  laborer,  as  he  is  to-day. 

Lodz,  in  Poland,  is  the  chief  centre  of  cotton  industry, 
though  Moscow  itself  is  a  very  formidable  competitor.  In 
less  than  twenty  years  the  Polish  cotton  centre  has  grov/n 
from  a  town  of  fifteen  thousand  people  to  a  city  of  over 
four  hundred  thousand  souls.  Tula,  near  which  is  the 
country -home  of  Tolstoi,  is  the  place  where  government 
arms  are  made,  and  perhaps  the  most  notable  seat  of 
steel  and  iron  manufacture  of  small  articles  in  the  empire. 
Ekaterinoslav  and  Usofka,  in  southern  Russia,  are  steel- 
producing  centres,  although  important  rolling-mills  are  in 
operation  in  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow.  Just  beyond  the 
border  of  Russia  proper,  and  over  the  line  in  Siberia,  are 
splendid  deposits  of  ore  and  coal,  and  there,  too,  material 
for  coke  abounds  in  unlimited  profusion.  Here,  indeed, 
is  the  natural  seat  of  the  steel  industry  of  the  empire. 
But  at  the  present  time  antiquated  methods  are  em- 

256 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

ployed,  and  the  Siberian  steel  industry  is  so  inconsiderable 
as  not  to  be  taken  into  account;  and  yet,  in  the  Urals 
alone,  impartial  engineers  have  demonstrated  that  there 
is  enough  iron  ore  to  supply  the  wants  of  the  whole  world 
for  decades,  and  of  Russia  alone  for  centuries. 

As  the  scientist  examines  specimens  of  a  class,  and  not 
every  individual  of  the  entire  class,  it  will  be  most  prof- 
itable to  the  reader  to  observe  laboring  conditions  in 
two  or  three  of  these  greatest  centres. 

"Our  chief  difficulty,"  said  the  head  of  a  large  English 
steel  mill  in  one  of  these  places,  "is  a  curious  and  almost 
absurd  circumstance.  The  number  of  Russian  holidays, 
including  Sundays,  on  which  the  working-men  actually 
quit  v/ork,  now  number  well  towards  one  hundred.  You 
see,  then,  that  we  are  deprived  of  labor  on  those  days. 
On  those  days,  too,  a  majority  of  our  men  get  drunk. 
Therefore,  on  the  day  immediately  succeeding  the  holiday 
they  either  do  not  return  to  work,  or,  if  they  do,  they 
are  good  for  nothing.  Thus  we  are  actually  without 
labor  on  the  holiday  itself,  and  short-handed  and  poorly 
equipped  on  the  day  succeeding.  It  is  a  difficulty  with 
which  no  other  country  has  to  contend,  and  cripples  us 
severely." 

Add  to  this  the  comparatively  low  efficiency  of  the  Rus- 
sian working-man,  who  has  not  yet  become  skilled  nor 
methodical  in  the  American  or  western  European  sense  of 
that  term,  and  it  is  easy  to  see  that  in  industry  Russia 
could  not  hold  her  own  at  all,  except  by  an  almost  pro- 
hibitive protective  tariff.  Should  Russia  abolish  her 
tariff  barriers,  it  is  the  judgment  of  the  most  thoughtful 
business-men  of  the  empire  that  there  is  not  a  factory 
which  could  survive  that  catastrophe  for  five  years. 

And  yet  there  is  a  party  in  Russia  which  bitterly  resents 
these  practical  methods  of  modem  industrialism.  At  the 
head  of  these  is  Tolstoi.  "These  chimneys  irritate  me," 
said  the  great  challenger  of  modem  civilization.  The 
iron  mills  to  which  Tolstoi  refers,  in  his  renowned  article 
17  257 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

in  the  North  American  Review  of  April,  1 90 1 ,  are  directly  on 
the  road  from  Tula  to  his  country  estate.  This  class,  how- 
ever, are  pure  idealists.  They  are  not  against  the  spread 
of  factories  in  Russia  any  more  than  they  are  against  the 
same  development  ("decadence  "  they  call  it)  any  place 
in  the  world  ;  and  yet  they  number  among  them  sev- 
eral of  the  highest  -  class  nobility,  and  a  few  of  the 
literary  and  scientific  men  ;  but,  taken  all  in  all,  they 
have  no  appreciable  effect  on  Russian  thought  and  pur- 
pose. 

Of  course,  to  these  must  be  added  those  business-men 
who  are  importers,  and  generally  the  great  traders  with 
foreign  countries.  This  is  the  same  class  of  men  and 
firms  engaged  in  similar  enterprises  found  in  our  own 
country,  and  they  use  the  same  arguments.  Then,  of 
course,  there  are  the  landed  proprietors  engaged  in 
agricultural  pursuits,  who  think  they  have  to  pay  more 
for  what  they  buy  than  they  would  if  there  were  no  tariff- 
protected  factories,  and  who  have  not  yet  learned  that 
these  home  factories  give  them  better  home  markets;  and 
these  "agrarians"  also  resent  the  rising  walls  and  the 
clouded  smoke-stacks  of  the  encroaching  and,  to  them, 
oppressive  mills.  Their  reasons,  too,  are  exactly  those 
which  formerly  were  used  in  the  United  States  by  those 
who  opposed  protection  upon  the  ground  that  it  made 
the  farmer  pay  more  for  what  he  had  to  buy. 

Nevertheless,  all  of  them  put  together  are  not  influen- 
tial. Strong  men  of  the  empire,  at  whose  head  stands 
Witte,  have  convinced  the  Czar,  as  they  did  his  father  be- 
fore him,that,to  use  the  language  of  Pobyedonostseff,  else- 
where quoted,  "  Russia  is  a  world"  of  itself;  that  it  must, 
in  the  long  run,  become  self-supporting;  that  its  industries 
must  be  variegated  and  multiplied ;  that  it  must  manufact- 
ure what  it  wears  and  uses,  as  well  as  raise  what  it  eats. 
And  so  protection  may,  for  many  decades  to  come,  be  re- 
gar 'ed  as  the  settled  economic  policy  of  all  the  Russias. 
Therefore,  factories  will  multiply  and  enlarge,  and  the 

258 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

evolution  of  the  Russian  peasant  into  the  modern  work- 
ing-man will  continue. 

And  yet  the  other  manufacturing  nations  have  little  to 
fear  from  Russia  as  a  competitor  in  the  markets  of  the 
world  outside  of  Russia  itself  for  certainly  a  generation 
or  perhaps  even  a  century.  Industrially,  Russia  has  only 
begun  the  process  of  "finding  herself";  and  it  will  be 
decades  before  the  process  is  completed.  Her  labor  is 
unskilled  and  inefficient,  and  in  comparison  with  Amer- 
ican labor  greatly  inferior.  On  the  other  hand,  her 
population  is  so  immense  that  her  factories  cannot  supply 
her  own  wants.  And  the  wants  of  her  people  are  in- 
creasing more  rapidly  than  the  number  of  the  establish- 
ments with  which  her  capitalists  and  foreign  investors 
try  to  supply  them. 

"Let  me  illustrate  this  by  a  very  simple  fact,"  said  a 
cotton  manufacturer  of  Moscow.  "The  masses  of  Russia 
wear  comparatively  little  underclothing.  If  they  could 
be  made  to  adopt  the  practice  of  wearing  more  under- 
garments, the  demand  for  our  cheap  fabrics  would  increase 
manyfold.  Now  that  practice  is  beginning.  Its  effect 
on  the  trade  is  as  yet  hardly  appreciable,  and  still  the 
most  careful  of  us  have  noted  it." 

This  is  a  very  simple  and  yet  a  very  important  fact. 
Its  truth  was  inquired  of  from  the  English  manager  of  a 
great  Russian  estate  of  some  hundred  thousand  acres, 
who  had  spent  thirty  years  in  the  empire. 

"Oh  yes,"  said  he,  quite  off-hand,  "certainly,  that  is 
true." 

But  the  Russian  peasants  are  beginning  to  go  to  the 
great  manufacturing  cities,  especially  during  the  winter, 
to  work  in  the  mills.  For  the  first  time  in  their  lives  they 
see  the  great  stores  of  Moscow,  St.  Petersburg,  Warsaw. 
For  the  first  time  they  learn  that  different  food  is  eaten, 
different  apparel  worn  by  those  in  the  cities.  They  return 
to  their  communes  (their  villages  are  communes)  in  the 
spring  and  summer  with  strange  tales.     Peasant  women 

259 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

do  the  like,  and  they  go  home  with  their  feminine  heads 
filled  with  new  ideas  of  dress  and  adornment.  And  so,  slow- 
ly, very  slowly,  weaving  backward  and  forward  among 
the  people,  moves  the  shuttle  of  changing  methods  of  dress 
and  Hving.  All  of  it  has  its  effect  upon  the  manufacturing 
industries  of  the  empire;  and,  what  is  far  more  important, 
all  of  it  has  its  effect  upon  the  ideas  of  the  people. 

Some  seventy-five  miles  south  of  Moscow  there  is  a 
certain  little  peasant  village.  You  may  travel  Russia 
from  the  Arctic  to  the  Caspian  and  not  find  a  better 
illustration  of  the  slow  evolution  of  peasant  life  that  is 
going  on  in  this  empire  than  in  this  little  village,  many 
miles  from  any  railroad;  for  here  is  the  peasant's  cottage, 
as  it  used  to  be,  a  mere  hut,  thatched  with  grass,  with 
earthen  floor,  and  horses,  pigs,  and  cows  occupying  the 
tiny  court  or  yard  attached  to  it.  Here,  too,  are  modern 
homes  of  the  typical  Russian  agricultural  peasant,  built 
perhaps  ten  or  fifteen  years  ago.  In  these  an  improve- 
ment is  noted.  There  is  still  the  earthen  floor,  but  there 
is  also  a  sort  of  tidiness  not  observed  in  the  older  dwellings. 
Then  there  are  later  cottages,very  well  built  and  covered 
with  a  kind  of  tin  or  sheet-iron  roofing. 

But,  now,  to  connect  all  this  with  the  village  peasant 
who  goes  to  Moscow.  Here  is  a  cottage  the  little  yard  of 
which  has  trees  and  vines.  It  is  painted,  too,  and  inside 
you  will  find  wooden  floors.  On  the  walls  hang  pictures — 
prints,  it  is  true,  but  attractive  copies  of  good  paintings- 
In  short,  this  dwelling  has  begun  to  take  on  the  appear- 
ance of  what  is  expected  in  an  American  working-man's 
home.  There  is  not  everything  in  the  abode  of  this  Rus- 
sian laborer  that  is  found  in  the  home  of  his  Ameri- 
can working  brother,  for  we  must  not  forget  that  the 
American  working-man,  in  comparison  with  the  foreign 
working-man,  lives  in  luxury.  But  there  are  the  begin- 
nings. And,  when  it  is  remembered  that  Russian  in- 
dustrial progress  commenced  at  a  period  still  within  the 
memory  of  young  men,  these  items  are  significant  and 

360 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

important.  This  cxDttage  is  the  home  of  a  working-man 
in  a  Moscow  cotton-mill. 

"What  are  your  wages?"  was  asked  of  a  skilled  ar- 
tisan, who  operated  one  of  the  printing  machines  by  which 
flowers  and  other  figures  were  stamped  upon  calico  in  one 
of  the  most  extensive  of  Russia's  textile  factories. 

"  One  hundred  and  fifty  rubles  a  month,"  said  he.  That 
is  seventy-five  dollars  of  American  money ;  and  very  heavy 
wages,  indeed,  in  Russia — quite  as  heavy,  I  believe,  as  is 
paid  in  England  or  Germany.  This  expert  was  a  French- 
man, as  was  the  active  manager  of  manufacturing  of  the 
whole  plant.  This  latter  man  received  three  hundred 
rubles,  or  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  per  month.  On 
the  contrary,  a  Russian  common  working-man  in  the  same 
factory  received  only  eighteen  rubles  per  month.  This 
is  nine  dollars  of  our  money.  Women  and  girls  engaged 
at  the  machines  get  less  than  this.  But,  low  as  these 
wages  appear,  yet  in  comparison  with  the  same  American 
labor  these  common  working  men  and  women  of  Russia 
may  truthfully  be  said  to  be  overpaid.  If  their  wages  are 
less  than  the  wages  of  American  working-men,  their  work- 
ing ability  is  still  smaller.  One  cannot  believe,  either, 
that  the  Russian  working  man  or  woman  will,  for  a  long 
time,  be  as  efficient  as  the  American  working  man  or 
woman.  Their  slowness  is  racial.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  they  display  a  patience  which,  perhaps,  may 
counteract  their  stolidity. 

This  factory,  like  many  Russian  factories,  in  addition 
to  paying  its  working-people  the  wages  described,  furnish- 
ed them  shelter  and  food.  The  working  men  and  women 
live  in  enormous  brick  buildings  or  dormitories,  built  for 
them  by  the  company  they  work  for.  The  rooms  are 
moderate  in  size,  and  in  each  room  there  are  from  three 
to  five  sleeping -booths,  divided  from  one  another  by 
curtains.  These  are  for  the  working  -  people  who  are 
married,  and  a  man  and  wife  occupy  each  of  these  rude, 
limited,    and   uncomfortable    apartments.     The   unmar- 

261 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

ried  men  and  women  occupy  different  portions  of  the 
building,  and  their  quarters  are  not  so  inviting  even  as 
the  hard  and  unattractive  surroundings  just  described  for 
the  married  people.  And  yet,  in  comparison  with  the 
crowded  squalor  of  the  hut  or  cottage  of  the  Russian 
village  in  which  these  people  were  brought  up,  and  in 
which  they  have  lived  until  recent  times,  when  the  im- 
provements just  noted  in  the  description  of  the  peasant 
village  began,  these  factory  quarters  are  an  improve- 
ment. 

The  food  is  simple,  but  substantial  and  abundant. 
Back  of  the  dormitories  are  heavy,  well-built  log  struct- 
ures, in  the  cellar  of  which  ice  is  kept  for  these  working- 
people,  and  in  the  body  of  which  their  various  belongings 
and  things  which  they  themselves  buy  are  stored  and 
cared  for. 

"Of  course,  you  are  not  troubled  in  this  country  with 
damage  lawsuits  by  injured  working-men,  which  is  the 
common  thing  in  America,"  was  observed  to  the  general 
superintendent  of  this  cotton  plant, 

' '  Yes,  indeed,  we  are.  We  have  no  means  of  indemnify- 
ing ourselves  as  your  manufacturers  have.  The  gov- 
ernment interferes  even  in  our  contracts;  and  when  it 
comes  to  personal  injuries,  if  a  man  gets  his  finger  hurt  a 
government  inspector  of  labor  makes  us  pay  the  injured 
person  a  certain  amount,  and  if  we  do  not  do  so,  files 
suit  against  us  in  the  name  of  the  jjerson  supposed  to  be 
injured,  whether  that  person  desires  it  or  not." 

While  this  statement  was,  perhaps,  exaggerated,  there 
was  in  it  a  general  and  substantial  truth.  Every  factory 
in  Russia  has  its  labor  inspector,  whose  business  it  is  to 
care  for  the  work-people  of  that  establishment,  and  to 
exact  as  much  as  possible  from  their  employers.  And 
he  does  that  with  the  alertness  which  the  agent  of  a  pa- 
ternal government  always  shows  to  people  who,  he  feels 
in  his  heart,  think  themselves  quite  above  him  in  every 
other  respect,  and  also  with  that  vigor  which  the  non- 
262 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

rich,  armed  with  official  authority,  usually  display  towards 
men  of  capital  within  their  power.  This  single  factory 
had  to  pay  considerable  money  in  1900  because  of  acci- 
dents which  even  the  government  inspector  himself  ad- 
mitted were  caused  by  the  negligence  of  the  persons 
injured.  Several  manufacturers  stated  that  the  law  of 
contributory  negligence  was  unknown  in  Russia,  and 
that  such  a  thing  as  attempting  to  escape  liability  for  in- 
jury caused  by  a  fellow-servant  was  unheard  of.  These 
statements  were  not  verified,  but  are  given  simply  as 
information  culled  from  several  different  sources,  and 
from  apparently  reputable  people. 

The  world-wide  conflict  between  labor  and  capital,  in 
the  form  we  Americans  know  it,  has  not  yet  appeared  in 
Russia,  nor  will  it  appear  as  long  as  the  present  form  of 
Russian  government  endures.  Before  the  "labor  ques- 
tion," as  that  enigma  of  the  ages  is  understood  in  England 
and  America,  will  appear  in  Russia,  a  distinct  working- 
man's  class,  in  the  modern  sense  of  that  term,  must  be 
created  there.  The  ever-increasing  volume  of  agricult- 
ural peasants,  who  work  in  the  factories  of  the  cities 
during  a  portion  of  the  year  and  then  return  to  their 
country  villages  to  cultivate  their  fields  during  the  other 
portion  of  the  year,  must  develop  into  a  permanent  class 
of  city  laborers,  severed  completely  from  the  country  and 
the  soil  to  which  they  are  now  tied.  The  village  indus- 
tries, or  "kustar  trades,"  as  they  are  called,  of  which  a 
brief  description  will  hereafter  be  given,  must  be  elim- 
inated by  the  modern  factory,  equipped  with  machines, 
which  will  do  all  of  the  work  now  done  by  the  fin- 
gers of  the  artisan  peasant  beneath  his  own  roof -tree. 
The  government  must  radically  change  its  whole  the- 
ory and  practice  with  reference  to  the  maintenance  of 
order. 

More  important  even  than  this,  the  customs  of  cen- 
turies, which  are  so  deeply  embedded  in  the  lives  of  the 
people  that  many  of  the  best-informed  students  declare 

263 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

that  those  customs  are  racial,  must  be  replaced  by  popular 
practices  distinctly  and  characteristically  non-Russian. 
And,  most  important  of  all,  the  very  spirit  of  the  Slav 
itself  must  undergo  a  transformation  so  complete  that 
he  will  be  changed  from  what  he  is  now  and  what  history 
tells  us  he  always  has  been.  Yet  so  lightning-like  are 
the  revolutions  being  wrought  in  every  field  of  human 
endeavor  at  the  present  time  that  no  thoughtful  man 
will  dogmatically  assert  that  the  fundamental  alterations 
above  indicated  will  not  take  place  among  the  Russian 
people. 

What,  then,  of  the  present?  Perhaps  it  will  be  most 
useful,  first  of  all,  to  glance  at  the  attitude  of  the  govern- 
ment towards  both  capital  and  labor,  as  we  understand 
those  terms  in  America;  for  the  attitude  of  the  govern- 
ment on  this  particular  question  represents,  at  the  present 
moment,  at  least,  the  thought  and  will  of  the  Russian 
people. 

On  the  one  hand,  whatever  may  be  said  of  the  in- 
fluence of  money  corruptl}'  to  ptirchase  privileges  in 
Russia,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  capitalist,  as  such, 
has  no  more  influence  in  Russian  legislation  or  administra- 
tion than  has  the  laborer;  and  neither  one  of  them,  as  such, 
has  any  influence.  Awkward  as  it  is  complex,  burdensome 
and  unscientific  as  it  may  be,  the  impartial  observer  must 
admit  that  from  the  large  and  long  view-point,  Russian 
legislation  and  administration  appear  to  intend  the  com- 
mon good  of  the  Russian  people.  We  all  hear  of  the  in- 
fluence of  classes  with  the  Russian  autocracy,  and  all  of 
us  go  to  that  country  with  an  almost  ineradicable  im- 
pression that  the  insistence  of  this  class  or  that  class  for  a 
desired  end  has  undue  weight. 

Especially  are  stories  numerous  of  corrupt  purchases 
of  personal  privileges,  comforts,  etc.  In  small  affairs 
and  in  individual  conveniences  this  may  be  true,  and 
some  business-men  say  that  it  is  even  true  in  the  matter 
of  municipal  franchises  and  the  like.     No  opinion  is  ex- 

264 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

pressed  on  this ;  but  in  the  sum  of  Russian  administrative 
thought  it  is  not  true.  The  only  thing  dominant,  im- 
perial, all-compelling  in  the  mind  of  the  Russian  states- 
man is  the  nation.  With  Witte  in  the  Finance  Ministry, 
it  is  the  Russian  nation ;  with  Pobyedonostseff  in  the  Holy 
Synod,  it  is  the  Russian  nation;  with  Grodekoff  in  Trans- 
Baikal  Siberia,  it  is  the  Russian  nation;  with  Alexieff 
on  the  seas,  it  is  the  Russian  nation. 

This,  too,  is  the  thought  of  the  Russian  people.  The 
Russian  peasant  has  a  slumberous  intellect  and  thinks 
very  little  about  anything,  but  yet  there  is,  saturating 
his  very  being,  the  thought  of  Russian  nationality,  in- 
herited from  generation  to  generation,  until  it  has  become 
with  him  an  instinct.  Even  the  most  aggressive  oppo- 
nent of  the  government  and  of  the  present  methods  (and 
such  were  many  of  the  most  enhghtened  of  those  who 
freely  gave  their  views)  have  in  their  minds  in  all  their 
schemes  for  reform  the  principal  object  of  solidifying  the 
Russian  people  and  advancing  the  power  of  the  Slav 
nationality. 

So  the  government  does  not  regard  the  capitalist  as  a 
partner  in  affairs  of  state;  it  regards  him  as  a  subject  of 
the  state.  It  does  not  regard  the  laborer  as  a  partner  in 
the  affairs  of  state;  it  regards  him  as  a  subject  of  the 
state.  Both  capital  and  labor  are,  in  the  thought  of  the 
Russian,  merely  factors  in  the  common  development  of 
the  people,  like  lands,  mines,  etc.  So  we  find  that  the 
Russian  government  does  not  understand  the  philosophy 
of  strikes,  as  it  is  understood  here  in  America.  It  re- 
gards a  labor  strike,  if  it  passes  the  point  where  the 
inspector  can  settle  it,  as  the  captain  of  a  vessel  would 
regard  mutiny  among  the  crew.  It  looks  upon  labor 
disturbances,  where  violence  occurs,  as  a  lawless  inter- 
ference with  the  orderly  on -going  of  the  nation.  There- 
fore it  interferes  instantly,  ruthlessly,  and  with  the  "iron 
hand,"* 

'  See  chapter  on  Labor  Laws. 
265 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

"It  is  denied  that  the  Cossacks  shot  and  killed  work- 
ing-men in  the  labor  riots  of  St.  Petersburg  three  or  four 
years  ago.  They  may  say  what  they  please,"  said  a 
young  working-man,  half  English  and  half  Russian,  who 
acted  as  interpreter,  "but  the  fact  is  that  the  Cossacks 
did  not  fire  blank  cartridges.  They  fired  ball  cartridges 
and  they  shot  to  kill."  But  this  is  only  gossip.  You 
cannot  get  at  the  real  truth  of  any  of  these  rumors,  which 
the  correspondents  uncage  from  every  point  in  Russia. 
Undoubtedly  there  is  overstatement  on  both  sides. 

As  yet  no  considerable  labor  riots  have  occurred.  The 
world  has  not  yet  learned  the  extent  and  causes  of  the 
recent  commotions  in  southern  Russia. .  It  is  possible  that 
they  may  have  been  exaggerated;  but  whether  their 
seriousness  was  under  or  over  stated,  it  appears  that  they 
have  speedily  subsided.  If  some  of  the  disturbances 
which  we  in  America  have  experienced  were  to  occur  in 
Russia,  they  would  be  made  the  subject  in  the  news- 
papers of  other  nations  of  columns  of  lurid  description, 
with  red  and  black  paint  lavishly  used  in  the  picture. 
Should  such  an  uprising  as  the  famous  disturbance  at 
Chicago  several  years  ago,  or  such  as  the  serious  troubles 
in  Colorado  in  the  days  of  Governor  Waite,  or  any  other 
of  our  notable  instances  of  the  uprising  put  down 
by  the  militia,  occur  in  Russia,  the  statement  would 
be  positively  made  to  the  civilized  world  and  ac- 
cepted as  true  that  actual  revolution  was  in  progress  in 
the  empire  of  the  Czar. 

On  the  other  hand,  as  has  been  noted,  the  excesses  of 
vested  capital  are  as  sternly  handled  as  any  labor  agita- 
tion would  be.  More  than  once  the  appropriate  depart- 
ment of  the  government  has  peremptorily  compelled  em- 
ployers "to  do  the  right  thing,"  as  we  would  put  it  here, 
by  their  work -people,  and  there  are  recent  instances 
where  Witte  has  corrected  attempted  frauds  of  business- 
men with  all  the  sternness  with  which  we  are  accustomed 
to  look  upon  the  processes  of  autocracy.     In  one  case  he 

266 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

absolutely  broke  up  a  comer  in  wheat,  which  had  been 
skilfully  manipulated  by  some  crafty  capitalists.  In  an- 
other instance  cargoes  of  grain  were  confiscated  by  the 
order  of  this  same  minister,  because  of  proof  of  unques- 
tioned fraud  in  its  shipment. 

The  weakness  of  this  whole  system,  of  course,  is  that 
no  matter  how  good  the  intentions  of  the  government 
may  be,  it  is  impossible  for  it  to  interfere  in  even  a  small 
number  of  instances  among  all  the  enterprises  of  a  people 
and  an  empire  larger  and  more  numerous  than  any  on 
the  globe.  Nevertheless,  the  Department  of  Finance  does 
assume  direct  supervision,  for  example,  over  every  manu- 
facturing enterprise  of  any  consequence  in  the  whole 
empire.  While  there  are  general  laws  conferring  as 
regular  and  definite  rights,  duties,  etc.,  on  corporations 
of  every  kind  as  we  have  here  in  America,  the  Ministry 
of  Finance  actually  undertakes  to  examine  into  the 
soundness  and  responsibility  of  every  one  of  them  before 
they  are  permitted  to  begin  business,  and  exercises 
visitorial  powers  over  them  afterwards. 

The  reason  assigned  for  this  is  plausible  in  theory, 
and  the  Russians,  also,  claim  that  experience  proves  that 
it  works  well  in  practice.  This  reason  is  that  if  hap- 
hazard investments  are  permitted  in  Russia,  any  kind  of 
an  enterprise  may  be  started  without  the  sanction  of  the 
government  and  its  supervision,  and  therefore  capital- 
ists, especially  those  from  other  countries  not  under- 
standing Russian  conditions,  may  make  investments 
ruinous  to  themselves,  and  so  become  propagandists  of 
aggressive  slander  against  the  Russian  government  and 
the  Russian  people  throughout  the  world;  and,  con- 
versely, that  mere  adventurers,  exploiters,  and  promoters 
may  get  into  the  empire,  blow  financial  bubbles,  which, 
on  bursting,  will  work  mischief  in  financial  conditions; 
and  so  forth  and  so  on.  Therefore,  the  paternal  hand  of 
the  Russian  government  interferes  alike  in  the  business  of 
the  capitalist  and  the  affairs  of  his  employ^. 

267 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

In  support  of  this,  it  is  the  undoubted  fact  that  only  a 
few  years  ago  Russia  was  fairly  overrun  with  unscrupulous 
promoters,  mostly  foreigners,  and  the  investors  of  other 
European  nations,  particularly  France  and  Belgium,  v/ere 
cheated  right  and  left.  "  Here  is  an  example  of  the 
financial  trouble  which  led  to  our  policy  of  examining 
every  enterprise  that  now  enters  Russia,"  explained  a 
certain  Russian  official.  "There  was  a  set  of  exploiters," 
he  continued,  "who  got  up  a  great  manufacturing  concern 
on  paper.  The  plant  was  to  be  estabhshed  here  in  Russia. 
They  had  secured  a  Russian  'charter,'  and  all  that  sort  of 
thing.  They  got  up  the  most  alluring  kind  of  a  prospectus. 
Their  stocks  v/ere  subscribed  for  generously.  They  as- 
sured the  investors  that  they  'had  behind  them  the 
Russian  government.'  They  actually  did  begin  a  little 
work,  but  in  a  short  time  this  was  abandoned.  They 
pocketed  the  proceeds  of  their  robbery,  and  left  to  exploit 
some  other  portion  of  the  world.  So  the  investors  lost 
every  cent  they  put  in  the  'enterprise.' 

"Then  you  should  have  heard  the  Russians  denounced. 
Every  man  who  had  put  a  ruble  into  this  bubble  was  a 
walking  denunciation  of  the  Russian  government  and 
everything  Russian.  We  could  not  stand  that,  you  see. 
There  was  nothing  for  us  to  do  but  to  adopt  our  careful 
policy  of  examining  into  the  responsibility  and  good  faith 
of  every  proposed  enterprise  which  capitalists  intend  to 
establish  in  our  country.  We  make  sure  that  they  are 
real  capitalists,  and  not  promoters.  We  reqiiire  guaran- 
tees. They  have  got  to  convince  us  that  they  really 
mean  to  do  bona-fide  v^^ork  and  erect  factories  on  real 
earth  and  of  real  brick  and  mortar,  instead  of  on  paper 
and  with  ink." 

For  another  failure  and  consequent  loss  to  investors, 
the  Russian  government  was  severely  assailed  by  the  press 
of  a  certain  other  European  nation.  You  can  find  in- 
stances of  this  by  the  score.  At  the  present,  however, 
it  is  not  the  government's  fault  if  a  concern  gets  into 

268 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  empire  which  is  not  substantial  and  sufficiently  re- 
sponsible to  meet  all  of  its  engagements,  and  which  does 
not  mean  business,  and  permanent  business  at  that.  And 
after  the  enterprise  is  actually  under  way,  the  govern- 
ment continues  its  careful  watchfulness  and  frequent  in- 
terference with  its  work,  but  always,  as  is  claimed,  for  the 
real  good  of  the  enterprise  itself,  and  to  make  sure  that 
its  methods  and  purposes  are  solid  and  honest. 

All  this  leads  to  more  dissatisfaction  on  the  part  of 
capitalists,  manufacturers,  and  other  business-men  than 
it  does  on  the  part  of  laboring -men.  Nor  are  these 
commercial  elements  slow  in  expressing  their  views.  You 
will  have  no  more  difficulty  in  hearing  dissent  from  any 
economic  policy  by  business  -  men  in  Russia  than  you 
will  hear  of  complaints  of  an  unsatisfactory  policy  in 
America  when  it  does  not  suit  the  complaining  interest. 
This  suggests  the  fact,  elsewhere  noted,  of  the  surprise 
which  the  ordinary  foreigner  has  at  the  liberty  of  speech 
prevailing  in  Russia.  Compared  with  the  ordinary 
American  conception  that  the  Russian  business-man  sub- 
mits to  everything  without  protest,  the  dissent  of  Russian 
importers,  for  example,  to  certain  schedules  of  the  Rus- 
sian tariff  is  illuminating.  A  conspicuous  example  of  this 
freedom  of  opinion  was  afforded  by  the  outcry  of  certain 
financial  and  commercial  interests  at  some  of  Witte's 
early  reforms.  This  is  not  true,  of  course,  of  the  common 
people.  The  peasants,  who  are  really  the  Russian  nation, 
always  speak  of  the  Czar  with  profound  and  devotional 
reverence,  and,  if  they  object  to  their  hard  conditions,  are, 
nevertheless,  quite  sure  that  if  the  Czar  could  learn  about 
their  misfortunes  he  would  adjust  them.  But  while  the 
business-men  of  the  empire  also  regard  the  Emperor  with 
reverent  and  sincere  respect,  they  look  upon  the  policies 
of  the  government  as  the  plans  of  responsible  ministers 
whom  the  Czar  appoints;  and  with  these  business -men 
those  policies  stand  on  their  merits,  just  as  the  plans  of 
American   statesmen   are  subjected   to  the  same  merit 

269 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

analysis  by  American  business -men.  The  ministry  of 
the  Russian  Czar  is  by  no  means  immune  from  criticism 
from  the  hps  of  important  Russians.  Indeed,  it  is  not 
free  from  open  attack  by  certain  fearless  minds. 

"Did  you  really  send  the  letter  to  the  Czar  and  his  min- 
isters, as  published  in  the  London  Times?"  was  asked  of 
Tolstoi,  who,  by-the-way,  was  not  found  in  banishment 
at  all,  but  exercising  all  the  liberty  an  American  farmer 
exercises  on  his  own  land. 

"Why,  certainly  I  did,"  was  the  reply.     "Why  not?" 

And  this  famous  letter  begins,  "More  assassinations, 
more  murders,"  etc.,  and  goes  on  to  denounce,  in  the  bold- 
est terms,  certain  recent  measures  taken  by  the  govern- 
ment in  some  trouble  or  other,  and  proceeds  to  suggest 
measures  as  radical  as  most  of  those  advanced  by  dissent- 
ers from  the  present  order  of  things  here  in  America.  Read 
Anna  Karenina,  and  you  will  find  that  the  conversations 
in  Russian  society  in  St.  Petersburg  are,  apparently,  as 
unrestrained  as  they  are  in  Washington.  It  must  not  be 
inferred  that  any  of  these  adverse  opinions  are  directed 
towards  the  government  itself;  for  the  ordinary  Russian, 
whether  business-man,  banker,  or  what  not,  appears  to 
be  devoted  to  his  Czar  and  to  Russian  institutions. 

The  Russian  government  maintains  that  Russia  is  at 
present  the  best  place  in  the  world  for  the  investment  of 
capital  in  manufacturing  enterprises,  if  those  enterprises 
are  conducted  with  great  conservatism ;  and  it  certainly  is 
true  that  the  dividends  frequently  paid  are  astonishing, 
even  to  an  American  accustomed  to  the  large  profits  of 
our  own  young  republic.  More  than  two  hundred  per 
cent,  annual  dividends  have  been  paid  within  the  last 
twenty  years  by  foreign  manufacturing  corporations  in 
Russia,  and  one  hundred  per  cent,  has  more  than  once 
been  paid.  The  Russian  manufacturer  himself  feels  that 
his  business  is  going  to  ruin  if  its  yearly  dividends  sink 
as  low  as  fifteen  per  cent.  Twenty,  even  thirty,  per  cent. 
are  more   common.     Even   in  the  great   industrial   de- 

270 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

pression  which  swept  over  Russia  about  three  years  ago 
the  annual  dividends  of  well-established  and  well-con- 
ducted commercial  enterprises  seldom  sank  lower  than 
ten  per  cent.  On  the  other  hand,  as  has  been  noted,  large 
numbers  of  industrial  concerns  barely  pay  expenses,  and 
many  of  them  failed  entirely.  The  number  of  these 
enterprises  that  were  forced  into  liquidation  present  a 
strange  paradox  to  the  heavy  dividends  paid  by  the  pros- 
perous ones,  but  that  liquidation  is,  as  has  been  noted, 
explained  upon  the  ground  of  over-capitalization,  negli- 
gent attention  to  business,  unfamiliarity  with  Russian 
conditions,  etc.,  and  is  used  as  an  argument  by  the 
government  to  justify  its  paternal  supervision  over  in- 
dustrial ventures,  both  foreign  and  domestic. 


XIX 

THE    RUSSIAN    WORKING-MAN 

WHATEVER  the  truth  may  be  as  to  the  profitableness 
of  wisely  invested  capital  in  Russia,  and  as  to  the 
beneficial  effects  on  business  itself,  which  the  government 
so  sturdily  maintains  is  the  result  of  its  paternal  methods 
with  capital,  the  visible  facts  seem  to  justify  the  govern- 
ment's contention  that  its  progress  in  the  regardful  care  of 
the  rights  and  happiness  of  its  laboring-people  is  greater 
than  that  of  most  other  countries.  For  example,  you  may 
find  in  St.  Petersburg  an  institution  which,  it  is  believed, 
is  without  an  exact  counterpart  anywhere.  It  is  a  large 
and  even  handsome  iron  structure,  devoted  to  the  recre- 
ation, comfort,  and  amusement  of  the  laboring  -  people 
of  the  Russian  capital.  When  visited,  in  1901,  it  was 
barely  completed.  Tea  and  other  refreshments  were 
served  at  actual  cost.  Free  performances  were  given  by 
fairly  good  theatrical  companies. 

In  one  section  of  a  great  building  was  a  beautiful  au- 
ditorium, well  equipped  with  comfortable  seats,  an  ex- 
cellent and  well-appointed  stage,  where  a  superior  class 
of  theatrical  entertainment  was  on  at  a  price  below  that 
charged  by  our  cheapest  popular  theatres  in  America. 
The  culinary  department  of  this  "  Labor  Palace,"  as  it  is 
called,  was  carefully  inspected,  and  was  found  to  be,  in 
contrast  with  like  arrangements  in  Russian  hotels,  sur- 
prisingly clean  and  attractive;  and  it  was  well  managed. 
I  believe  that  this  great  building  was  the  government 
building  at  the  National  Exposition  at  Nijni-Novgorod,  re- 
moved from  the  latter  place  to  St.  Petersburg  when  the 

272 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

national  fair  was  over,  and  made  into  the  "Labor  Pal- 
ace" of  the  capital,  as  above  described. 

Again,  in  Moscow  there  is  a  free  amusement  park,  given 
over  to  the  entertainment  of  the  working-people.  It  may 
be  visited  freely  by  any  one — noble,  priest,  peasant,  for- 
eigner, native — but  its  purpose  is  to  give  to  the  working- 
people  of  the  factories  a  good  time,  and  especially  to  wed 
them  away  from  habits  of  intemperance,  for  this  park  is 
a  temperance  affair.  You  are  informed  that  it  is  main- 
tained by  a  philanthropic  society  in  St.  Petersburg 
devoted  to  the  practical  work  of  stamping  out  intem- 
perance among  the  common  people  and  generally  better- 
ing their  conditions. 

This  place  was  visited  many  times,  and  on  each  occasion 
was  found  to  be  well  attended,  and  on  Sundays  positively 
crowded.  Here  acrobats  give  their  performances  and 
singers  render  their  songs,  all  without  price  to  the  hearer. 
Everywhere  quass,  the  non-alcoholic  Russian  drink,  and 
all  other  kinds  of  "temperance  drinks"  are  served  at  the 
most  trivial  prices.  There  are  all  sorts  of  popular  amuse- 
ments, most  of  which  charge  a  nominal  fee  for  admission, 
but  so  small  as  to  be  within  the  reach  of  the  very  poorest 
laborer  present. 

And  these  thousands  of  work  -  people  of  Moscow  ap- 
parently enjoy  themselves  in  this  temperance  play- 
ground. Groups  of  boys  and  young  men  will  stroll  up 
and  down,  with  the  accordion  in  the  hands  of  one  of  them, 
playing  some  Russian  air;  and  it  is  as  well  to  note  here 
as  elsewhere  the  singular  fact  that  the  accordion  is  the 
national  Russian  musical  instrument  —  a  strange  cir- 
cumstance, since  it  is  a  foreign  instrument,  and  the  Slav 
ordinarily  sticks  to  the  methods  and  instruments  of  his 
fathers.  But  the  accordion  has  captured  the  Russian 
common  people.  You  will  hear  its  muffled  and  throaty 
notes  in  the  darkness  of  an  agricultural  village,  where 
bands  of  boys  and  girls  in  the  early  hours  of  the  evening 
stroll  up  and  down ,  singing  their  weird  folk  songs  to  its 

i8  27s 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

accompaniment.  You  will  hear  it  on  the  banks  of  the 
Amur.  You  will  hear  it  in  St.  Petersburg.  In  Man- 
churia a  soldier  was  observed  rifle  slung  across  his  back 
and  accordion  in  his  hands.  Wherever  the  Russian 
peasant  is,  there  is  the  accordion. 

Not  a  shabbily  dressed  working  man  or  woman  was 
observed  in  this  temperance  park  of  Moscow.  Their 
clothing  was  plain,  of  course,  but  good  and  serviceable. 
So  far  as  the  eye  of  the  observer  could  determine,  they 
were  healthful,  too;  and  certainly  they  looked  happy. 
Here  laugh  and  jest  and  badinage;  yonder  a  Russian  boy, 
wrought  up  by  some  strain  of  music,  suddenly  begins  the 
national  dance  of  the  people,  very  picturesque,  and  in- 
creasing in  vigor  until  it  ends  in  a  whirl  of  action,  amid 
the  loud  applause  of  the  crowd  of  on  -  lookers.  Then 
another  one  takes  it  up  to  see  whether  he  cannot  win 
more  praise  than  his  fellow.  And  so  the  day  is  spent  in 
innocent  amusement  and  good-fellowship. 

So  much  has  been  heard  of  the  habitual  drunkenness  of 
the  Russian  that  careful  search  was  made  for  it. 

"It  is  likely  that  you  will  find  this  unfortunate  thing 
most  conspicuously  in  the  '  human  market,'  "  said  a  young 
Russian,  to  whose  kind  offices  the  writer  was  indebted  for 
many  valuable  directions. 

The  "human  market,"  as  it  is  called,  is  really  a  place 
where  laboring-people,  who  come  into  Moscow  from  the 
country  districts,  assemble  to  sell  their  services.  It  is 
an  open  square  in  the  congested  part  of  the  city.  On  one 
side  of  it  are  vodka  shops;  on  another  side  of  it  a  big 
sort  of  iron  shed  has  been  erected,  hke  the  sheds  into 
which  our  trains  enter  at  any  American  rail  way -station. 
But,  although  it  was  Sunday  and  although  those  of  the 
lower  class  of  unskilled  labor  were  there  assembled,  only 
three  drunken  men  were  observed. 

Several  were  lying  out  on  the  ground,  with  bundles 
under  their  heads,  in  the  open  glare  of  the  hot  sun,  ap- 
parently in  a  state  of  bestial  intoxication.     But  investiga- 

274 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

tion  discovered  the  fact  that  they  were  merely  rugged 
young  peasants  taking  a  nap.  For  it  is  M^orth  repeating 
again  that  the  Russian  peasant,  man  or  woman,  can 
sleep  right  out  in  the  open  sun  on  the  hottest  day,  whether 
it  be  on  the  top  of  a  boat  on  the  Amur  River,  under  the 
blazing  sun  of  a  Siberian  summer,  or  in  the  fields  in  the 
country,  or  on  the  hard,  stone  court  of  the  "human 
market"  in  Moscow. 

"That  is  very  bad,"  the  American  remarked  to  his 
Russian  friend. 

"Why  bad?"  said  the  Russian. 

"Why,  all  those  men  and  women  so  frightfully  drunk," 
answered  the  American. 

"Yes,  but  they  are  not  drunk,"  answered  the  Russian; 
"they  are  just  taking  a  nap." 

Observing  the  American's  incredulity,  the  Russian 
gentleman  called  a  policeman,  explained  the  situation, 
and  asked  the  policeman  if  he  would  not  kindly  show  the 
American  that  these  people  were  not  drunk  at  all.  Good- 
humoredly,  the  officer  laughed,  and  said,  "Certainly." 
Whereupon,  very  kindly,  he  woke  several  of  them,  ap- 
parently explained  the  situation,  and,  without  the  slight- 
est ill-humor  at  being  aroused,  the  awakened  one,  when 
he  comprehended  the  situation,  would  laugh  as  though 
it  was  the  best  joke  in  the  world,  get  up,  and  walk  off, 
clearly  in  possession  of  every  faculty,  unclouded  by  alcohol. 

At  this  particular  spot  you  may  observe  the  Russian 
laborer  and  the  Russ>.an  peasant  at  his  worst,  however; 
and  you  must  expect  very  rude  speech  and  very  shocking 
words,  indeed,  if  you  have  your  interpreter  faithfully 
translate  what  is  said.  For  the  purpose  of  such  a  visit 
the  professional  interpreter  and  guide  is  practically  worth- 
less. He  will  tell  you  as  much  as  he  pleases  and  no  more. 
The  best  thing  —  indeed,  the  only  way  —  is  to  be  ac- 
companied by  a  Russian  friend,  with  whom  you  are 
sufficiently  well  acquainted,  and  whose  character  is  such 
that  you  know  you  can  trust  him. 

27S 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

The  most  conspicuous  building  in  Moscow,  except  the 
Cathedral  of  the  Kremlin,  is  an  immense  white  structure 
near  the  banks  of  the  river.  It  is  the  foundhng  asylum, 
maintained  partly  by  the  municipal  and  partly  by  the 
national  government.  One  informant  said  that  it  was 
maintained  entirely  by  the  imperial  government.  How- 
ever it  is  maintained,  it  is  a  public  institution  where  new- 
born children  are  taken  and  cared  for.  Not  all  of  these — 
nor,  as  is  claimed,  even  the  majority  of  them  —  are 
irregular. 

The  majority  of  the  infants  received  are  said  to  be  the 
regular  offspring  of  married  working-people,  who  cannot 
attend  to  their  infants  themselves,  and  who  leave  them 
there  for  a  period  and  pay  a  small  price  for  their  main- 
tenance. Such  investigation  as  was  possible  leads  the 
observer  to  believe  that  this  is  true ;  and  yet  a  large  num- 
ber o  them  are  certainly  not  so  happily  circumstanced. 
Indeed,  many  well-informed  men  declare  that  nearly  all 
are  foundlings. 

A  drunken  man  in  a  Russian  town,  whether  it  be  in 
Moscow  or  in  the  heart  of  Manchuria,  is  treated  very 
kindly  by  the  police.  Indeed,  no  trivial  disturber  of  the 
peace  is  handled  roughly.  At  one  of  the  better-class 
places  of  amusement  in  Moscow,  business -men  and  their 
wives,  and  generally  well-to-do  people,  gather  for  enter- 
tainment and  refreshment.  You  may  hear  French  opera 
in  an  admirable  little  theatre ;  witness  a  balloon  ascension ; 
have  any  kind  of  refreshment  you  want;  but,  best  of  all, 
you  can  witness  a  strange  entertainment  confined  ex- 
clusively to  a  representation  of  things  peculiarly  Slav. 
Before  this  stage,  which,  unlike  the  theatre,  opens  on  the 
grounds  and  does  not  require  an  additional  fee,  gather,  of 
course,  the  greatest  throngs.  Very  enthusiastic  is  their 
appreciation  of  a  particularly  good  thing.  But  when  a 
company  of  young  Russians,  fresh  from  the  country,  but 
very  carefully  drilled  by  a  Russian  master  in  Russian 
songs  and  dances,  appear  and  arrange  themselves  in  a 

276 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

semicircle,  and  sing  old  Slav  songs,  weird  and  thrilling, 
the  spectators'  enthusiasm  increases  in  vigor;  and  when, 
finally,  one  after  another,  these  young  fellows,  all  dressed 
in  the  national  Russian  costume  of  the  old  time,  advance 
to  the  centre  of  the  stage  and  whirl  in  a  frantic  maze  of 
some  dance  of  the  Russian  people,  the  crowd  grows 
fairly  frenzied  with  delight. 

In  this  crowd  was  a  man  with  his  wife  and  two  children. 
Evidently  he  was  a  Russian  small  shop-keeper  or  a 
Russian  well-paid  laborer.  He  was  very  drunk,  indeed, 
and  as  demonstrative  as  he  was  intoxicated.  He  not 
only  applauded  but  interrupted  the  entertainment  with 
cries  and  suggestions.  There  were  plenty  of  policemen, 
too;  but  everybody  took  him  quite  good-humoredly  ex- 
cept the  wife,  who,  like  a  wife  any  place  under  similar 
circumstances,  appeared  to  be  covered  with  embarrass- 
ment. Finally  his  noise  became  unbearable,  and  some  one 
connected  with  the  playgrounds  came  to  him  and  very 
courteously  asked  him  to  subside,  smiling  while  he  asked 
him. 

The  man,  happy  with  the  show  and  happy  with  his 
vodka  and  happy  with  everything,  consented;  but  in  less 
than  a  minute  forgot  it  again.  Then  a  policeman  came 
forward  and  took  him  in  charge.  At  first  the  man  re- 
sisted, but,  with  laughter  and  good-humor  and  with  all 
possible  kindliness,  the  officer  led  him  away.  There  was 
no  display  of  force,  no  club  drawn  (the  Russian  policeman, 
however,  does  not  carry  a  club,  but  a  revolver),  nor  any 
brutality  of  any  kind.  Surprise  being  manifested  at  this, 
a  Russian  friend  observed:  "What  is  the  use  of  hurting 
him;  he  is  enjoying  a  holiday;  he  means  no  harm;  he  does 
not  hurt  anybody,  and  the  policeman  feels  that  he  is  a 
brother  Russian,  and  so  he  is." 

In  Trans-Baikal  Siberia  a  young  Russian  priest  had 
consumed  so  much  vodka  that  he  was  crazed  with  it. 
Unlike  most  Russians,  who  T^'hen  drunk  are  exceedingly 
good-natured,  this  young  Russian  priest,  apparently,  had 

277 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

all  the  combative  and  selfish  animal  instincts  uncaged  by 
the  liquor.  He  insisted  on  occupying  a  first-class  carriage 
when  his  ticket  called  for  a  third-class  carriage,  where 
his  wife  and  children  were  quietly  sitting.  The  railway 
officials  argued  with  him  with  the  utmost  patience.  Time 
and  again  they  would  induce  him  to  go  to  his  proper 
place,  and  time  and  again  he  would  return  to  the  place 
from  which  he  had  been  led.  Finally  he  would  not  move 
at  all.  Force  had  to  be  used,  but  it  was  employed  with 
just  as  little  roughness  as  was  possible.  In  the  end,  it 
became  necessary  to  take  him  to  the  baggage-car;  but 
the  officers,  who  appeared  to  be  as  pained  and  humiliated 
as  the  poor  fellow's  wife  herself,  firmly  but  kindly  held 
his  hands,  lifted  him  to  their  shoulders,  and  put  him  into 
the  baggage -car,  locking  the  door  after  him.  Perhaps 
a  dozen  such  interferences  with  drunken  Russians  were 
observed,  either  in  European  Russia  or  in  Siberia,  and  in 
not  a  single  instance  was  any  brutality  or  signs  thereof 
exhibited  by  the  police. 

Not  only  is  Russian  drinking  undoubtedly  on  the  de- 
crease, but  the  quality  of  liquor  has  within  the  last  few 
years  been  improved.  Indeed,  there  is  said  to  be  no  com- 
parison between  the  quality  of  vodka  now  consumed  by 
the  people  and  the  villanous  concoction  formerly  sold  to 
them.  The  reason  of  this  is  that  the  manufacture  and 
sale  of  vodka  are  now  conducted  by  the  government, 
whereas  it  was  formerly  made  and  sold  by  private  in- 
terests; also  it  can  now  be  purchased  only  under  careful 
regulations,  which  are  rigidly  enforced.  So  much  only 
may  be  purchased  at  a  time.  Public  vodka-shops,  as 
they  were  formerly  conducted,  are  now  becoming  extinct. 
In  addition  to  this,  the  central  government  is  distributing 
all  over  the  empire  plain  and  simple  little  temperance 
pamphlets.  At  the  capital  of  one  zemstvo  (that  is,  the 
town  where  the  offices  of  this  peculiar  district  government 
are  located)  large  quantities  of  these  were  seen,  and  a 
Russian  friend  translated  them. 

278 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Let  us  now  visit  a  typical  Russian  steel  and  iron  mill. 
The  greatest  of  these  are  in  the  coal  and  iron  districts  of 
southern  Russia,  and  perhaps  the  next  greatest  in  St. 
Petersburg  itself;  but,  for  purposes  which  the  description 
will  reveal,  selection  is  made  of  a  certain  plant  operated  by 
foreign  capital  and  under  foreign  management  in  Moscow, 
a  characteristically  Russian  city.  It  is  a  large  affair,  al- 
though unimportant  compared  with  the  mammoth  works 
to  which  we  Americans  are  accustomed  in  such  places 
as  Pittsburg  and  Bethlehem.  It  was  noted,  too,  that 
the  furnaces  were  not  of  the  latest  type;  on  the  con- 
trary, the  machinery  for  fashioning  the  manufactured 
steel  was  entirely  up  to  date.  This  concern  turned  out 
great  quantities  of  wire,  locomotive  and  car  wheels,  en- 
gines, and  several  other  varieties  of  steel  and  iron  ma- 
chinery. The  wages  paid  were  much  better  than  those 
paid  the  employes  of  the  cotton  factories.  The  working- 
men  in  the  machine  department,  where  the  lathes  and 
various  other  mechanical  devices  common  to  all  such  es- 
tablishments were  located,  appeared  to  be  active,  ener- 
getic, and  intelligent. 

These,  of  course,  were  the  highest  grade  of  skilled  labor 
in  the  whole  place.  Many  of  them  were  foreigners,  mostly 
Frenchmen.  The  common  laborer,  as  elsewhere,  was  ex- 
clusively Russian,  and  v/as  slow,  and,  compared  to  our 
American  working-men,  stupid,  although  willing,  strong, 
and  industrious.  Then,  too,  in  comparison  with  a  similar 
American  mill,  with  our  precision  of  organization  and  our 
carefully  and  sharply  maintained  discipline,  the  state  of 
affairs  in  the  Russian  establishment  was  very  inferior. 
Indeed,  contrasted  with  the  accurate  adjustment  of  ser- 
vice to  service  which  prevails  in  our  American  mills,  the 
work  in  the  same  kind  of  a  Russian  establishment  seemed 
confused.  And  then,  too,  where  the  corporation  itself  is 
a  French  corporation,  most  of  its  skilled  employes  are 
French  artisans. 

But  here  was  a  development  well  worth  attention.     Im- 

279 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

mediately  across  the  street  from  the  mill  itself  is  located 
a  private  school  for  the  children  of  the  working-people. 
This  school  is  built  and  maintained  by  the  company.  It 
is  much  superior  to  the  ordinary  Russian  country  school; 
and  while  it  does  not,  of  course,  approa,ch  the  common 
school  in  our  American  cities,  it  was,  nevertheless,  a  very 
creditable  establishment.  The  children  of  the  work- 
people are  furnished  with  instruction  here  free  of  charge 
to  the  parents. 

This  is  only  an  item,  however,  of  the  labor  develop- 
ment here  noted.  On  the  same  street  with  the  school- 
house  is  a  considerable  establishment,  owned  by  a  joint- 
stock  company,  whose  stockholders  are  made  up  exclu- 
sively of  the  working-men  of  the  factory.  It  is  also  run 
by  other  working-men  employed  by  this  working-men's 
stock  company.  This  establishment  supplies  groceries 
and  all  table  provisions  to  the  employes  of  this  mill  at 
cost — that  is,  without  any  middleman's  profit.  There  is 
even  a  bakery  connected  with  it,  where  bread  is  baked 
for  the  families  of  this  mill's  work-people.  The  employes 
of  this  working-men's  establishment  sleep  and  live  in  the 
place  itself.  Their  sleeping-rooms  were  visited,  and  were 
found  to  be  clean,  comfortable,  and,  in  comparison  with 
the  sleeping  accommodations  in  the  dormitories  above 
described,  where  the  work-people  of  the  cotton  factories 
are  housed,  commodious  and  almost  luxurious.  Iron  bed- 
steads, comfortable  mattresses,  clean  bed-clothing  make 
these  quarters  almost  as  good  as  those  found  in  middle- 
class  Amerian  hotels. 

Inference  must  not  be  made  that  all  of  the  working-men 
of  the  mills  and  factories  come  from  the  country  districts. 
A  large  part  of  the  operatives  are  permanently  located 
in  the  cities  themselves.  Nor  must  it  be  understood  that 
all  manufacturing  establishments  house  and  feed  their 
employes.  On  the  contrary,  many  factories  do  not  main- 
tain their  work-people,  but  supply  them  lodging  at  low 
rental,  the  laborers  themselves  providing  their  own  food. 

2&0 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Many  work-people  live  in  rooms  or  flats  rented  from  their 
employers.  Some  of  these  quarters  were  visited  in  vari- 
ous cities.  Certain  ones  in  St.  Petersburg  are  a  fair  illus- 
tration of  the  rest. 

Uncomfortable  board  buildings  these  structures  are 
found  to  be.  What  prevents  frequent  and  destroying 
fires  is  not  clear.  The  stairways  are  narrow  and  winding, 
the  corridors  are  the  same.  Usually  two  rooms,  or  at 
most  three,  suffice  for  a  family  consisting  of  husband 
and  wife  and  an  ever-increasing  number  of  children. 
No  place  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  where  these 
children  could  play  was  observed,  although  inquiry  was 
made  for  it.  And  yet  the  children's  "sand  heap"  and 
children's  "playground"  are  things  on  which  Russians 
particularly  pride  themselves.  There  are  sections  of 
some  of  the  cities  which  appear  to  be  without  them. 
But  fairness  compels  the  statement  that  open  spaces  con- 
venient for  children's  play  are  frequent  in  Russian  cities. 

To  return  to  the  living  conditions  of  some  of  the  most 
poorly  circumstanced  of  Russian  city  working-men, 
squalid  as  they  are,  as  bad  and  even  worse  can  be  found 
in  London  or  New  York.  About  these  Russian  working- 
men's  families,  however,  there  is  a  submission  to  existing 
things  not  found  anywhere  else  in  civilized  countries.  It 
is  a  mistake  to  assume  that  this  is  on  account  of  the  re- 
pressive measures  of  the  government. 

"At  least  these  people  seem  to  be  fairly  well  content," 
was  suggested  to  a  fellow-English  observer. 

"Content !  They  have  got  to  be.  Most  anybody  would 
be  content  with  a  bayonet  at  his  breast,"  answered  the 
Englishman. 

"Oh,  come  now,"  suggested  a  Russian  gentleman,  who 
by  no  means  approved  of  some  of  the  sterner  methods  of 
repression  said  to  be  sometimes  practised  by  the  police 
and  soldier}^  to  prevent  labor  demonstrations,  but  who  in- 
sisted that  reports  of  such  disturbances  published  in  other 
countries  are  absurdly  exaggerated — "oh,  come  now," 

281 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

said  this  friend  of  the  Russian  laborer  and  the  Russian 
peasant,  "the  government's  repression  is  not  the  reason 
for  these  people's  contentment  with  their  wretchedness. 
It  is  a  great  deal  deeper  than  that.  It  is  racial.  Do  not  for- 
get that  we  are  Slavs.  In  a  measure,  we  are  fatalists. 
Our  people  take  things  as  they  come,  and  live  the  lives  to 
which  they  feel  that  they  are  ordained."  A  good  deal  of 
talk  here  and  there  with  the  Russian  working-men  and  the 
wives  of  Russian  working-men  lends  plausibility  to  this 
theory. 

"Do  not  you  find  it  cold  here  in  winter?"  was  asked  of 
one  of  these  Russian  women,  the  wife  of  a  working-man 
in  a  manufacturing  shop  near  by.  She  was  still  young, 
though  the  mother  of  five  children. 

"Oh  yes;  sometimes,  of  course,  it  is  cold,"  she  answered; 
"but  God  made  the  winter." 

"But  it  is  hot  enough  here  now,"  was  remarked  to  her. 
(It  was  one  of  those  blazing  days  that  St.  Petersburg 
occasionally  has  in  the  summer-time.) 

"Yes,  it  is  hot;  but  God  sent  the  summer." 

"And  do  you  look  for  better  conditions — I  mean  larger 
rooms  and  more  things  to  live  on  and  live  with?" 

"Ah,  that  is  as  God  wills." 

And  pages  could  be  consumed  by  examples  of  the  same 
kind.  It  is  not  said  that  these  are  true  representations  of 
the  Russian  working-people's  mind.  They  may  have  been 
mere  evasions.  They  inay  have  been  the  easiest  answer 
which  unthinking  minds  made  to  questions  which  they 
did  not  understand.  The  statements  alone  are  noted, 
and  their  value  and  the  proper  inferences  to  be  drawn 
from  them  are  left  to  the  reader.  But  sure  it  is  that 
they  bear  out  the  Russian  theory  that  the  racial  charac- 
teristics of  the  Slav  are  a  fatalistic  indolence,  a  stolid 
lack  of  initiative,  an  acceptance  of  conditions  as  they 
are,  or  of  directions  received  from  superior  sources. 
It  recalls  the  remark  of  a  Russian  nobleman  on  the 
Amur  boat,  when  hundreds  of  peasants,  with  great  labor, 

282 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

dragged  heav}"  chains  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  order  to  fasten 
them  to  a  tree,  none  being  nearer,  so  that  there  might  be 
a  leverage  with  which  to  wrench  the  boat  from  a  sand- 
bar on  which  it  had  unluckily  run.  The  stupidity  of  the 
whole  thing  was  remarked  by  an  American  traveller. 

"Ah,  well,"  said  the  Russian  count,  "you  have  been 
abusing  the  bureaucracy  of  Russia  for  a  week  now.  Look 
at  those  people.  You  have  a  good  example  before  your 
eyes  of  exactly  why  it  was  that  Peter  the  Great,  our  ideal 
reformer,  founded  the  present  bureaucratic  system  in 
Russia.  Peter  the  Great  knew  his  people.  He  ordered 
all  of  their  beards  cut  off  because  they  never  would  have 
cut  them  off  themselves.  He  autocratically  destroyed 
the  ancient  garb  of  the  boyar,  which  was  also,  in  varying 
degrees,  the  national  costume.  He  had  their  coats  cut 
short  and  their  trousers  made  sensible  and  serviceable 
simply  because  the  people  would  have  continued  that 
custom  to  this  very  day  if  they  had  not  been  ordered  to 
alter  it." 

In  short,  there  are  many  reasons  to  believe  that  the 
lethargy  of  the  Russian  people  as  a  mass  is  due  to  racial 
causes.  These  reasons  are  to  be  found  all  through  Rus- 
sian history  and  are  before  the  eyes  of  the  contemporary 
observer  throughout  the  whole  country.  The  writer's 
observation  has  been  too  rapid  and  perhaps  too  super- 
ficial to  afford  an  independent  and  mature  opinion  on 
this  subject,  important  though  the  subject  may  be.  The 
mere  facts  are  stated  as  far  as  they  could  be  obtained. 

A  Russian  common  laborer  in  a  steel  mill  at  St.  Peters- 
burg came  running  after  the  English  manager  and  his 
visitor  during  the  course  of  a  fairly  thorough  inspection 
of  the  works.  The  working-man  called  to  the  manager, 
who  excused  himself  and  went  to  his  employe.  Presently 
he  returned  laughing. 

"Now  there  is  an  interesting  incident,"  he  said,  "and  it 
is  thoroughly  characteristic.  What  do  you  suppose  that 
fellow  wanted  with  me?     "Why,  he  said:  'Master,  look 

283 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

out  for  that  man  who  is  with  you.  I  think  he  is  trying 
to  discover  some  of  the  secrets  of  our  works.'"  (Recent 
inventions  had  been  placed  in  this  mill,  and  the  new 
process,  the  proprietors  hoped,  would  make  it  superior  to 
any  other  then  existing  in  northern  Russia.)  "You  see, 
he  saw  you  looking  around  very  carefully,  and  when  I 
was  over  on  the  other  side  of  the  mill  he  saw  you  closely 
examining  everything  you  came  across.  His  suspicions 
were  aroused  instantly,  and  that  little  incident,  which  you 
might  not  have  seen  in  many  days  of  travel  in  Russia, 
shows  you  a  peculiarity  of  all  classes.  That  characteristic 
is  their  suspicion.  They  suspect  everything  and  every- 
body. But  you  see  he  was  perfectly  true  to  me.  That 
same  man  would  cheat  me  if  he  could,  but  he  would  not 
let  anybody  else  cheat  me.  Our  own  employes  might 
rob  us  right  and  left,  but  they  would  risk  their  lives  to 
prevent  anybody  else  from  robbing  us.  They  get  drunk 
on  holidays  themselves,  but  they  will  be  very  hot  about 
the  same  offence  of  working-men  in  Mr.  So-and-so's 
factory." 


XX 

THE    LABOR    LAWS    OF    RUSSIA 

THE  labor  question  is  the  universal  question.  As 
the  world's  civilization  grows  more  complex,  the 
labor  question  must  steadily  grow  more  delicate.  In  es- 
timating the  quality  of  other  nations,  the  treatment  of 
their  laborers  is  an  element  of  prime  importance,  for, 
after  all,  at  bottom  it  is  the  labor  and  capital  of  sister 
nations  with  which  we  Americans  must  compete.  For 
this  reason  much  space  has  already  been  given  in  these 
pages  to  this  subject,  and  for  this  reason  much  space  is 
still  deemed  necessary;  for  we  want  to  ascertain — do  we 
not? — what  kind  of  a  force  it  is  which  the  world  beholds 
along  the  Asiatic  shores  of  the  Pacific  Ocean.  We  have 
looked  upon  the  Russian  laboring-man  in  the  great,  mod- 
em factories  and  mills  of  Russia;  we  have  seen  how  he 
works,  how  he  lives,  what  he  eats,  how  he  is  amused;  have 
noted  his  inefficiency  as  a  working-man,  have  observed  his 
strong  points  of  patience  and  endurance,  and,  in  general, 
have  hastily  surveyed  those  qualities  of  human  interest 
which  go  to  make  up  the  real  man  and  woman.  We  have 
seen  something,  too,  of  the  general  spirit  of  the  Russian 
state  as  it  affects  the  laboring  people  of  the  empire.  But 
the  laws  which  govern  laboring  conditions  in  Russia  have 
not  been  set  forth,  and  it  is  believed  that  these  are  of  suffi- 
cient interest  and  importance  to  justify  a  chapter  of  gen- 
eral examination.  It  is  felt,  too,  that  the  provisions  of 
Russian  legislation  which  govern  and  safeguard  the  fac- 
tory workers  of  the  empire  will  give  a  fair  idea  of  the  states- 
men who  devise  and  the  government  which  enacts  them. 
Perhaps  the  most  striking  manifestation  of  the  humani- 

285 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

tarian  movement  in  the  field  of  labor  legislation  in  all 
countries  was  that  relating  to  the  employment  of  children 
in  factories  and  other  industrial  works.  The  history  of 
such  legislation  in  England,  France,  Germany,  and  the 
United  States  is  of  most  absorbing  interest,  and  of  highest 
possible  contemporary  and  historical  importance.  Of 
course,  the  same  is  true  of  Russia  also.  In  1882  a  law  was 
placed  upon  the  statute  books  of  Russia  upon  this  impor- 
tant subject.  This  law  prohibited  the  employment  of  chil- 
dren under  twelve  years  of  age  in  all  kinds  of  manufactur- 
ing industries  except  the  "kustar  trades,"  hereafter  de- 
scribed. This  law  requires  that  children  over  twelve  and 
under  fifteen  years  of  age  shall  not  be  employed  to  exceed 
eight  hours  a  day.  These  eight  hours  do  not  include  the 
time  spent  at  school  and  in  resting.  It  further  provides 
that  children  shall  not  be  required  to  work  continuously 
longer  than  four  hours,  at  the  expiration  of  which  time 
the  employers  are  obliged  to  give  the  children  a  stated 
period  of  rest.  Employers  are  prohibited  from  requiring 
children  to  work  at  night,  on  Sundays  or  on  holidays;  and 
no  work  is  permitted  to  be  done  by  any  child  which  is 
deemed  by  the  factory  inspectors  to  be  injurious  or  fa- 
tiguing. The  employer  is  compelled  to  allow  the  children 
to  attend  the  necessary  schools  in  the  vicinity  of  the  fac- 
tory; and  factories  are  given  the  right  to  erect  schools  at 
their  own  expense,  which  the  children  of  the  factory  may 
attend.  A  description  of  one  of  these  schools  has  been 
given  elsewhere.  Many  such  were  visited  by  the  writer, 
and  were  found  to  be  fairly  well  conducted.  ^ 

'  The  law  concerning  child  labor  gives  the  Minister  of  Finance 
the  right  to  allow  the  employment  of  children  of  from  ten  to 
twelve  years  of  age  during  the  day,  and  children  between  twelve 
and  fifteen  years  during  the  night,  where  the  nature  of  the  indus- 
try requires  this,  and  where  it  cannot  do  the  children  any  harm. 
Such  investigation  as  could  be  made  showed  that  this  power  has 
been  exercised  by  the  Minister  of  Finance  very  sparingly  indeed, 
and  usually  with  more  careful  consideration  than  might  be  ex- 
pected. 

286 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

To  insure  the  enforcement  of  this  child-labor  law,  an 
inspectorship  of  factories  was  created  and  a  staff  of  fac- 
tory inspectors  appointed  for  the  empire.  It  was  believed 
at  the  time  the  law  was  passed  that  the  supervision  of 
these  inspectors,  and  the  fear  of  the  displeasure  of  the 
government ,  would  prevent  the  employers  from  infringing 
it,  and  so  no  penalty  for  its  violation  was  provided. 
It  was  found,  however,  that  the  factory  owners  violated 
the  law  in  several  instances,  and  two  years  later  it  was 
amended  by  fixing  a  fine  of  one  hundred  rubles  ($50) 
for  the  infraction  of  any  part  of  the  child-labor  act;  and 
this  penalty  amendment  provided  that  if  the  owner  or 
manager  of  the  establishment  could  prove  that  the  in- 
fraction took  place  without  his  knowledge,  but  through 
the  fault  of  the  person  directly  superintending  the  work, 
the  latter  person  should  be  liable  to  the  penalty. 

A  year  later  a  law  was  enacted  prohibiting  the  em- 
ployment of  all  young  persons  under  seventeen  years  of 
age  and  of  all  women  in  cotton  mills  at  night,  and  tliis 
was  afterwards  extended  to  other  textile  industries.  The 
government  inspectors  present  in  every  factory  are  said 
to  enforce  this  law  rigidly,  but  that  there  is  evasion  of  it 
in  many  instances  is,  nevertheless,  undoubtedly  true. 
Very  careful  provisions  are  made  for  the  enforcement  of 
the  law  by  the  inspectors.  For  example,  if  a  manufact- 
urer intends  to  employ  children,  he  must  first  declare 
that  intention  and  make  a  statement  of  the  number  of 
hours  he  expects  them  to  work.  When  he  employs  these 
children  their  names  must  be  registered  in  a  special  book. 
This  book  sets  out  various  details  descriptive  of  the 
child's  capacity  for  work,  and  a  column  is  left  at  the 
end  of  the  page  in  which  the  inspector  must  write  his 
conclusions  or  remarks. 

If  the  inspector  deems  any  child  to  be  either  too  young 
or  too  weak  for  the  work  required  of  him,  the  child  must 
be  examined  by  a  physician.  After  an  examination,  if 
the  physician  thinks  that  the  child  is  either  too  young  or 

287 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

too  weak  for  the  work,  the  employer  must  immediately 
discharge  the  child.  Any  resistance  on  the  part  of  the 
employer  is  promptly  remedied  by  the  police.  That  all 
may  know  their  rights,  a  list  descriptive  of  the  work  that 
must  be  performed  by  children  is  required  to  be  posted 
in  the  workshops.  If  any  adult  working-man  or  working- 
woman  violates  the  law  in  his  or  her  treatment  of  any 
children  who  are  at  work,  the  manager  of  the  factory  is 
responsible  therefor. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that,  in  the  matter  of  the  fine 
of  one  hundred  rubles  ($50)  for  the  infraction  of  the  child- 
labor  law,  the  schooling  of  the  child  is  especially  men- 
tioned. If  the  employer  violates  the  law  by  overworking 
the  child,  or  employing  a  child  under  age,  or  requiring  a 
child  to  work  an  illegal  number  of  hours,  he  may  not 
only  be  fined,  but  also  be  imprisoned  for  one  month. 

The  child-labor  law  may  be  said  to  have  been  the  first 
step  in  modem  Russian  legislation  on  the  labor  question. 
It  is,  however,  claimed  by  enthusiastic  Russians  that 
Russia  led  the  world  in  legislation  on  the  labor  question. 
They  cite  the  fact  that  in  the  eighteenth  century  imperial 
decrees  began  concerning  labor  inspection,  requiring  work- 
ing-men to  be  paid  in  full,  forbidding  ill-treatment  of  em- 
ployfe,  preventing  over-working,  and  restricting  hours  of 
labor  to  twelve  hours  in  the  twenty-four;  and  that  such 
ukases  were  issued  is  undeniable.  Indeed,  for  the  last 
two  centuries,  in  spite  of  the  serfdom  under  which  the 
great  masses  of  the  Russian  people  were  held  in  bondage, 
many  regulations  were  enacted  by  the  Russian  govern- 
ment for  the  care  of  laborers  in  manufacturing  industries. 

However  fascinating  the  study  of  the  development  of 
Russian  labor  laws,  space  forbids  more  than  mention  of 
present  statutes;  but  it  may  be  said  that  distinctly  mod- 
em labor  legislation  in  Russia  began  with  the  child-labor 
law,  of  which  an  abstract  is  given  above.  All  human 
legislation  obeys  the  law  of  growth  as  much  as  does  the 
development  of  animals  or  plants.     So,  when  the  Russian 

288 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

government  began  modem  legislation  by  the  child-labor 
statute,  it  was  inevitable  that  that  act  should  set  in  op- 
eration natural  forces  requiring  further  labor  legislation. 
Sure  enough,  not  four  years  passed  until  a  general  law 
was  enacted  concerning  the  hiring  of  working-men,  de- 
fining the  relations  of  employer  and  employ^,  perfecting 
factory  inspection,  and  extending  it  generally  to  adult 
labor  as  well  as  to  child  labor.  This  law  was  very  general 
in  its  application.  It  has  since  been  amended  several 
times,  as  experience  showed  the  original  law  to  be  de- 
fective and  inadequate. 

In  general,  this  law  sets  out  regulations  singularly 
minute  concerning  every  feature  of  the  contract  between 
the  employer  and  employed.  It  also  provides  special 
regulations  concerning  the  maintenance  of  oider  in  fac- 
tories and  mills.  Some  of  these  provisions  are  of  suffi- 
cient general  interest  to  be  set  out.  For  example,  the 
manufacturer  must  either  make  a  written  contract  with 
the  working-man,  or  give  him  a  book  which  contains  the 
terms  of  the  agreement.  In  no  case  can  a  working-man 
be  employed  for  more  than  five  years.^ 

The  employer  is  required  to  pay  the  employ^  his 
wages  in  cash.  He  cannot  pay  him  in  food,  clothing, 
materials,  and  the  like.  In  this  way  the  evil  known  in 
America  as  the  "pluck-me  stores"  was  anticipated  and 
prevented.  The  penalty  for  paying  the  working-man  in 
anything  but  cash  is  a  fine  not  less  than  twenty-five  nor 
more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars.  If  the  laborer 
is  hired  for  several  months,  he  must  be  paid  his  wages 
at  least  once  each  month;  if  for  an  indefinite  period,  at 
least  twice  a  month.  If  he  is  hired,  not  by  the  time 
but  by  the  piece  of  labor  to  be  performed,  he  is  to  be 
paid  on  the  completion  of  the  job. 

^  As  a  matter  of  practice,  many,  perhaps  most,  of  the  working- 
men  are  employed  in  groups,  and  a  book  is  issued  to  the  elder  or 
leader  whom  these  laborers  elect,  for  the  whole  group,  instead  of  to 
each  man  singly. 

19  289 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

The  employer  is  required  to  take  hygienic  care  for  the 
protection  of  his  laborers,  and  to  supply  them,  free  of 
charge,  with  medical  attendance. 

In  addition  to  the  contract -book,  which  must  be  issued 
to  the  operative  who  is  employed  for  a  period  of  time, 
instead  of  by  the  job,  the  employer  must  issue  him  a  pay- 
book,  and  in  the  book  the  money  received  by  the  laborer 
must  be  set  down,  as  must  the  fines  imposed  upon  him. 
If  the  employer  does  not  keep  these  books  of  his  laboring- 
men  properly,  he  may  be  fined  for  each  offence  not  less 
than  five  rubles  ($2.50)  and  not  more  than  twenty-five 
rubles  ($12.50). 

On  the  other  hand,  the  employer  may  fine  his  working- 
man  for  any  one  of  three  causes — first,  for  defective  work; 
secondly,  for  absence  without  sufficient  cause;  and, 
thirdly,  for  any  infraction  of  the  shop  regulations. 

In  determining  what  is  defective  work  the  employer 
is  not  the  sole  judge.  The  government  factory  inspector 
may  be  appealed  to.  Moreover,  the  law  prescribes  mi- 
nutely what  shall  constitute  defective  work  for  which  the 
employ^  may  be  fined.  For  example,  defective  work  is 
defined  to  be  such  as  causes  damage  to  raw  material  or 
machinery,  and  fines  for  this  are  calculated  by  the  nature 
of  the  defect,  and  not  by  the  loss  sustained  by  the  em- 
ployer. It  was  feared  by  the  government  that  these 
fines  might  be  used  by  the  employers  to  their  own  profit. 
To  prevent  this,  it  was  provided  that  the  fines  should  not 
go  to  the  employer,  but  should  be  collected  into  a  special 
fund  to  be  used  for  the  benefit  of  the  employes.  Fines 
for  absence  without  sufficient  cause  may  not  be  imposed 
unless  the  absence  is  for  at  least  half  a  day;  nor  can  the 
laborer  be  fined  for  absence  because  of  such  unavoidable 
circumstances  as  fire  or  flood,  illness  of  the  working-man, 
or  of  his  wife  or  parents,  or  of  the  death  of  either.  Of 
course,  wherever  fines  may  be  imposed  for  absence  without 
sufficient  cause,  the  wages  of  the  laborer  may  also  be  de- 
ducted for  the  time  missed. 

290 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Fines  may  not  be  imposed  for  disobedience  to  shop 
regulations  arbitrarily.  They  apply  only  to  unreasonable 
infractions,  such  as  leaving  the  premises  without  permis- 
sion, disobedience  to  rules  for  protection  against  fire  and 
cleanliness,  quarrelling  in  the  factory,  or  for  insubordi- 
nation and  the  like.  For  these  the  fines  must  not  exceed 
more  than  one  ruble  for  each  offence.  If  the  laborer  is 
dissatisfied  with  the  fines,  he  may  complain  to  the  govern- 
ment inspector  of  the  factory.  If  the  inspector,  on  in- 
vestigation, decides  that  the  fine  has  been  unjustly  im- 
posed, he  may  bring  an  action  against  the  manager  of 
the  factory  in  the  law  courts.  That  the  working-men 
may  know  their  rights,  a  list  of  all  possible  fines  must  be 
posted  in  the  shops. 

Moreover,  the  total  amount  of  all  fines  imposed  on  a 
working-man  must  not  exceed  one-third  of  his  wages. 
When  that  sum  is  reached  the  laborer  may  be  discharged, 
but  if  he  feels  himself  aggrieved,  he  may,  within  a  month, 
bring  an  action  in  a  court  of  law  for  damages  against  the 
manager  who  discharged  him. 

It  will  be  noted  that  these  fines  do  not  go  to  the  em- 
ployer, but  form  a  special  fund  for  the  benefit  of  the 
working-man.  The  law  does  not  leave  the  disposition  of 
this  fund  to  the  employer,  but  prescribes  what  the  "fines 
fund"  shall  be  used  for.  For  example,  it  may  be  used  to 
help  sick  or  injured  workmen,  or  working-women  who  are 
near  the  period  of  confinement,  or  to  relieve  the  financial 
distress  of  a  laborer,  caused  by  fire,  flood,  and  the  like, 
or  for  funerals  of  working-men,  etc.  When  the  fund 
exceeds  one  hundred  rubles  ($50)  in  amount  it  can  no 
longer  be  kept  by  the  employer,  but  must  be  deposited 
at  the  state  savings-bank,  and  can  only  be  drawn  out 
on  an  order  signed  by  the  manager  of  the  factory  and 
the  factory  inspector. 

When  a  working-man  has  been  employed  under  this  law, 
both  the  employer  and  the  employ^  must  give  fifteen 
days'   notice.     Furthermore,   the   law  prevents  the   re- 

291 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

duction  of  wages  during  the  time  for  which  the  laborer  is 
employed,  on  the  one  hand,  or  the  reduction  of  the  num- 
ber of  working-days,  on  the  other.  Conversely,  the  em- 
ploy^ cannot  demand  an  increase  of  wages  or  any  other 
alteration  of  the  contract.  If  either  employer  or  em- 
ployd  violates  the  law,  severe  punishments  are  provided; 
for  example,  three  hundred  rubles  ($150)  fine  for  the 
employer,  and  a  month's  imprisonment  for  the  employ^. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  with  how  firm  a  hand  the 
government  deals  with  employers  of  labor  in  its  effort 
to  prevent  labor  disturbances.  For  example,  if  the  man- 
ager of  a  factory  breaks  three  times  any  of  the  regulations 
provided  for  in  the  law,  or  if  he  causes  a  disturbance 
among  his  laboring  people,  making  necessary  the  assist- 
ance of  the  police,  the  head  of  the  factory  may  be  im- 
prisoned for  three  months  and  prohibited  from  managing 
a  factory  for  two  years. 

On  the  other  hand,  any  fight  or  strike  on  the  part  of 
the  laboring-men  is  punishable  by  imprisonment  for  not 
less  than  one  week  nor  more  than  five  months ;  and  if  the 
strike  is  actually  made  the  strikers  may  be  imprisoned 
for  not  less  than  two  nor  more  than  eight  months.  But 
if  the  strikers  do  any  damage  or  attempt  to  intimidate  a 
fellow  working-man,  the  individual  may  be  imprisoned  for 
the  maximum  term  of  sixteen  months. 

The  provisions  by  which  the  contract  may  be  termi- 
nated are  interesting,  but  the  one  most  curious  and 
illustrative  of  industrial  conditions  in  Russia  is  that  by 
which  the  laborer  is  released  from  the  contract  if  his 
village  community  refuses  to  extend  his  leave  of  absence 
— that  is,  extend  his  passport.  The  reader  is  referred  to 
the  explanation  of  the  passport  system  in  another  chapter. 

The  attempt  to  balance  delicately  the  respective  rights 
and  obligations  of  the  employer  and  working-man,  which 
is  manifest  throughout  the  whole  labor  legislation  of 
Russia  is,  perhaps,  best  illustrated  by  the  reasons  for 
which  the  employer  may  discharge  his  working-men,  on 

292 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  one  hand,  thus  terminating  the  contract,  and  the 
reasons  for  which  the  working-man  may  terminate  his 
contract,  on  the  other.  For  example,  if  the  working- 
man  is  absent  for  three  consecutive  days  without  a 
sufficient  reason,  or  if  he  is  absent  for  six  days  in  the 
course  of  a  month,  whether  consecutive  or  not,  or  if  he 
absents  himself  for  fifteen  consecutive  days,  even  if  he 
has  a  sufficient  reason  for  such  absence,  his  employer  may 
discharge  him,  thus  terminating  the  contract.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  employ^  may  leave  his  employer  instantly 
if  he  is  assaulted  or  beaten.  He  may  also  terminate  his 
contract  and  quit  his  employment  if  the  food  and  shelter 
supplied  him  have  been  bad,  or  if  the  work  required  of 
him  is  unhealthy.  He  may  also  leave  if  the  bread-winner 
of  the  family  to  which  he  belongs  should  die,  thus  leaving 
the  famiily  without  its  laborer  in  the  village  community 
to  which  he  belongs. 

In  1897  the  law  was  amended,  fixing  twelve  hours  as 
the  time  beyond  which  adult  working-men  might  not 
be  required  to  labor,  and  the  factory  was  permitted  to 
run  night-shifts  and  day-shifts  of  twelve  hours  each.  In 
government  work  the  working-men  were  given  Sundays 
and  official  holidays,  amounting  to  forty  in  the  year,  ex- 
clusive of  Sundays.  While  the  law  makes  it  optional 
whether  the  private  establishments  shall  observe  these 
holidays,  as  a  matter  of  practice  it  is  said  that  the  work- 
ing-men observe  the  holidays  anyway.  It  was  impossible 
to  verify  this  from  actual  observation ;  but  the  informa- 
tion upon  which  the  statement  is  based  is  credible. 

The  existing  law  on  the  subject  of  hours  of  labor  is  con- 
fused, but  the  following  is  beheved  to  be  a  fairly  accurate 
statement. 

Eleven  and  one-half  hours  may  be  required  for  dav- 
work.  This  applies  to  both  men  and  women.  The  work- 
ing-day begins  at  6  a.m.  and  ends  at  7  p.m.  An  hour  and  a 
half  is  allowed  for  the  noon  meal  and  rest.  This  applies 
to  only  one  shift.     If  two  shifts  are  employed,  the  day's 

293 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

work  may  be  eighteen  hours,  beginning  at  4  a.m.  and  end- 
ing at  10  P.M.  It  will  be  seen  that  this  in  reality  re- 
quires but  nine  hours  for  each  shift. 

As  before  stated,  eight  hours  out  of  the  twenty-four 
constitute  a  full  day's  labor  for  a  child  under  fifteen. 

A  curious  provision  of  the  law  is  that  overtime  work, 
which  is  carefully  prescribed  in  the  statute,  must  not  ex- 
ceed, for  the  entire  year,  one  hundred  and  twenty  hours. 
It  should  be  noted  also  that  the  provisions  of  the  law  may 
be  suspended  as  to  overtime  and  other  items  when  there 
is  a  fire  in  the  factory  or  breakage  of  machinery,  or  some 
other  cause  which  interferes  with  the  operation  of  the 
plant  and  which  needs  immediate  remedying. 

The  effect  of  religion  on  the  labor  situation  in  Russia  is 
shown  by  a  single  provision  to  the  effect  that  working- 
men  belonging  to  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church  must  be 
given  the  holidays  of  their  Church,  and  also  Sundays, 
while  for  the  working-men  who  are  not  members  of  that 
Church  these  holidays  may  be  omitted.  If  the  working- 
men  happen  to  be  followers  of  another  faith — for  example, 
Mohammedans  —  they  are  given  the  holidays  prescribed 
by  that  religion,  instead  of  Sundays,  as  prescribed  for  the 
Christian  religion. 

If  a  factory  has  a  thousand  employes,  it  must  main- 
tain an  infirmary  or  hospital,  with  at  least  ten  beds ;  if  there 
are  more  than  a  thousand  working-people  (men,  women, 
and  children)  employed,  the  factory  hospital  must  have 
fifteen  beds.  This  hospital  and  the  medical  treatment 
and  attendance  of  the  working-men  are  all  paid  for  by 
the  factory. 

Perhaps  the  most  characteristic  feature  of  Russian  labor 
legislation  is  the  voluminous  laws  on  the  subject  of  factory 
inspection.  It  was  found  after  the  enactment  of  the  first 
law  for  factory  inspection  that  the  inspection  was  not  per- 
fectly performed.  Sometimes  the  inspectors  were  op- 
pressive to  the  factory  owners;  sometimes  they  were  un- 
just to  the  operatives ;  sometimes  they  were  undoubtedly 

294 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

corrupt.  To  remedy  these  many  defects,  a  factory  and 
mining  board  was  established  in  1889,  and  was  made  one 
of  the  sub-bureaus  of  the  Ministry  of  Finance. 

The  powers  of  this  board  are  very  broad.  It  may  make, 
from  time  to  time,  such  rules  and  regulations  concerning 
factory  inspection  as  experience  shows  to  be  desirable. 
It  may  over-rule  any  action  of  any  factory  inspector;  and, 
finally,  it  acts  as  a  sort  of  court  of  appeal  from  the  de- 
cision of  local  factory  boards. 

These  local  factory  boards  exist  in  every  manufacturing 
province.  They  consist  of  the  governor  of  the  province, 
the  prosecuting  attorney,  the  chief  of  police,  the  chief 
factory  inspector  for  the  province,  and  the  two  represent- 
atives of  the  manufacturers.  These  boards  may  provide 
rules  and  regulations  particularly  applicable  to  the  indus- 
try within  their  jurisdiction.  Especially  do  they  look  to 
the  preservation  of  health,  life,  and  morality  among  the 
work-people. 

From  these  local  boards  we  come  down  to  the  factory 
inspectors  themselves.  The  latest  law  of  a  general  char- 
acter, defining  their  powers  and  duties,  was  enacted  in 
1900,  though  so  constant  are  the  amendment  and  altera- 
tion of  all  Russian  laws  that  it  has  been  changed  many 
times  since,  but  not  in  important  particulars.  The  fol- 
lowing is  believed  to  be  a  fair  statement  of  its  more  im- 
portant provisions. 

To  these  inspectors  all  disagreements  between  the  la- 
boring people  and  the  factory  managers  are  carried.  The 
inspector  is  then  supposed  to  investigate  the  complaints, 
to  explain  the  causes  of  them  to  the  aggrieved  party,  and 
generally  to  act  as  peace-maker  between  the  employer  and 
the  employ 6.  If  the  inspector  cannot  make  an  amicable 
arrangement  between  the  hostile  parties,  he  must  refer 
the  whole  matter  to  the  courts. 

The  inspector  fixes  certain  days,  not  fewer  than  one  a 
week,  on  which  he  will  receive  any  person  having  a  com- 
plaint, whether  manager  or   employ^,  and  make  verbal 

29s 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

explanation  as  to  rights  and  duties,  etc.  In  addition  to 
this,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  inspector  to  ascertain  for  himself 
whether  the  factory  manager  is  observing  all  the  provi- 
sions of  the  law.  In  doing  this,  he  may  question  all  of  the 
working-people  whenever  he  thinks  it  desirable.  Should 
he  think  it  necessary,  he  may  summon  the  owners  of  the 
factory  themselves.     Indeed,  this  is  often  done. 

In  determining  the  observance  of  the  law  by  the  fac- 
tory managers,  the  inspector  may,  upon  presenting  a  per- 
mit from  the  Department  of  Trades  and  Manufactures,  go 
through  any  and  every  part  of  the  mill  or  factory  at  any 
hour  of  the  day  or  night,  and  through  all  of  the  dormito- 
ries, hospitals,  schools,  and  other  buildings  attached  to 
the  factory. 

When  one  of  the  work-people  is  injured,  the  factory  in- 
spector immediately  investigates  the  cause.  If  he  finds 
that  the  accident  resulted  from  the  non-observance  of 
the  law  by  the  factory -owners,  the  inspector  draws  up  a 
sort  of  complaint.  There  are  many  sections  of  the  law 
under  which  this  complaint  or  statement  may  be  drawn 
up.  Sometimes  it  is  under  a  provision  of  the  criminal 
code;  sometimes  under  what  is  called  the  industrial  code. 
It  may  be  made  either  by  the  factory  inspector  alone  or 
by  him  in  conjunction  with  the  officers  of  the  police. 
When  so  drawn,  it  is  transmitted  to  the  authorities  for 
inquiry  and  trial. 

It  is  also  a  part  of  the  duty  of  the  factory  inspector  to 
superintend  generally  the  schools  which  the  factory  is 
required  to  keep  for  the  children  of  operatives,  and  to  see 
that  the  children  attend  the  schools,  and  that  instruction 
is  given  according  to  the  provisions  of  the  law. 

Where  strikes  or  other  labor  troubles  are  threatened  or 
under  way,  the  inspector  goes  instantly  to  the  spot.  First 
he  attempts  to  bring  the  employers  and  the  employes  to 
a  friendly  understanding.  Failing  in  this,  any  measures 
may  be  taken,  carefully  provided  for  by  law,  which  the 
justice  and  necessity  of  the  case  seem  to  require.     It  is 

296 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

said  that  in  such  cases  the  local  inspectors  of  the  factories 
keep  in  continuous  communication  with  the  chief  in- 
spector of  the  city  or  district  by  telegraph  and  telephone, 
and  the  police  are  carefully  in  touch  with  the  entire 
situation. 

Finally,  the  inspectors  pass  upon  the  opening  of  fac- 
tory shops,  the  issuance  of  pay-books,  the  payments  to  sick 
or  injured  operatives  from  the  funds  collected  from  fines, 
the  charges  which  the  factory  makes  on  their  working- 
men  for  lodgings,  bath,  etc.,  the  prices  of  articles  sold  to 
the  co-operative  stores,  the  rules  which  the  factory  man- 
agers desire  to  make  on  their  own  motion,  in  addition  to 
the  regulations  fixed  by  the  general  law  or  by  the  regula- 
tions of  the  factory  boards.  Also,  he  must  certify  general 
scales  of  wages  and  countersign  different  kinds  of  records 
which  the  law  requires  the  factory  to  keep,  such  as  books 
for  boilers,  for  children  employed,  for  fines,  etc. 

The  entire  laws,  rules,  and  regulations  concerning  fac- 
tory inspection  in  Russia  are  voluminous  in  extent,  minute 
in  the  specification  of  duties  and  powers.  No  attempt 
will  be  made,  of  course,  to  set  them  out  in  their  entirety, 
or  even  to  give  a  complete  general  analysis  of  them.  It 
has  been  thought  worth  the  space  to  detail  the  above 
provisions,  that  the  reader  may  have  some  general  idea 
of  this  most  important  branch  of  Russian  legislation. 

The  law  is  still  unsatisfactory  on  the  question  of  acci- 
dents. Nevertheless,  Finance  Minister  Witte,  some  four 
years  ago,  prepared  and  presented  to  the  Council  of  State 
a  bill  on  the  civil  liability  of  employers  which  pretty 
effectually  covered  the  situation  from  a  Russian  point  of 
view.  The  Council  of  State  approved  the  bill  at  its  first 
reading;  but  when  it  came  to  the  second  reading,  the 
manufacturers  of  Moscow  and  St.  Petersburg  presented 
a  petition  to  the  Finance  Minister,  asking  for  the  postpone- 
ment of  the  proposed  measure,  for  the  reason  that  they 
were  about  to  form  mutual  insurance  societies  for  their 
employes,  and  if  the  proposed  bill  became  a  law  before 

297 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

this  reform  was  perfected,  it  would  cause  many  facto- 
ries and  mills  serious  financial  difificulty.  Indeed,  it  was 
demonstrated  that  in  some  instances  it  would  threaten 
them  with  insolvency.  It  is  understood  that  for  these 
reasons  the  bill  has  not  yet  been  passed.  This  proposed 
law  defines  the  liability  of  the  employer  for  all  accidents 
to  his  employes.  A  limit  of  the  amount  of  damages 
which  may  be  recovered  in  each  case  is  fixed.  The  law 
of  contributory  negligence  is  introduced  by  a  provision 
reducing  the  amount  of  damages  in  proportion  to  the 
contributory  negligence.  Our  law,  placing  the  burden 
of  proof  on  the  plaintiff,  is  by  this  proposed  Russian 
act  directly  reversed  and  the  burden  of  proof  is  placed 
on  the  employer.  He  can  only  release  himself  from  this 
burden  of  proof  by  showing  three  things  —  first,  that 
the  accident  was  inevitable;  second,  that  it  occurred 
by  reason  of  the  fault  or  intention  of  a  third  party  for 
whom  the  employer  was  not  responsible;  third,  the  fault 
or  malicious  intention  of  the  injured  working-man. 

There  are  provisions  in  this  law  concerning  the  settle- 
ment of  all  such  disputes  by  amicable  arrangements  be- 
tween the  employer  and  the  injured  employd.  This,  of 
course,  is  to  prevent  lawsuits;  but,  fearing  that  it  might 
in  some  instances  lead  to  fraud  on  the  part  of  the  em- 
ployer and  injustice  to  the  employe,  it  is  provided  that 
such  amicable  agreement  shall  be  made  before  a  magis- 
trate, who  is  required  to  see  that  no  injustice  is  done  to 
the  injured  working-man.  If  both  parties  desire  it,  they 
may  leave  the  settlement  of  the  amount  of  damages  to  a 
court  of  arbitration  or  to  the  factory  inspector  himself. 
There  are  no  appeals  from  such  decisions. 

If  the  case  is  not  settled  in  some  such  way  the  action 
for  damages  must  be  brought  by  the  injured  working- 
man,  or,  if  he  dies,  by  his  wife  or  relatives.  To  prevent 
damage-suit  lawyers  working  up  unjust  cases,  the  bill  pro- 
vides that  the  case  shall  be  conducted  on  the  part  of  the 
injured  party  by  lawyers  appointed  for  this  purpose  by 

298 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  Council  of  Barristers;  and  the  fee  of  such  lav/yers  is 
fixed  in  the  law.  There  is  a  queer  provision,  very  illustra- 
tive of  the  temper  of  Russian  legislation,  in  this  proposed 
employers'  liability  bill — damages  for  the  death  of  a  work- 
ing-man must  be  paid  to  those  members  of  his  family  who 
need  it,  and  not  to  some  one  who  happens  to  be  his  near- 
est relative  or  who  was  living  with  him  at  the  time  of 
his  death. 

For  fear  that  employes  would  take  advantage  of  this 
liability  law  and  live  on  the  damages  recovered,  which 
were  not  in  all  cases  to  be  paid  in  a  lump  sum  but  in  the 
form  of  periodical  allowances,  it  is  provided  that  the 
amount  of  such  instalments  might,  after  five  years,  be 
reconsidered  and  refixed  according  to  the  capacity  of  the 
working-man  to  labor  at  that  time. 

The  salient  features  of  this  law  have  been  given  thus 
fully  because,  if  not  already  enacted,  it  is  only  a  question 
of  time  when  the  above  will  substantially  be  the  labor  law 
of  Russia.  When  this  bill  is  passed,  the  labor  laws  of 
Russia  will  be  fairly  complete. 

But  it  must  be  said  that  in  the  labor  legislation  of 
Russia  we  behold  again  that  paradox  which  is  so  striking 
a  feature  of  every  department  of  Russian  life — permanency 
of  policy  inextricably  intertwined  with  perpetual  change 
of  method.  The  general  laws  of  Russia,  not  only  in  labor 
legislation  but  in  the  statutes  relating  to  agriculture,  to 
commerce,  to  every  conceivable  subject,  undergo  almost 
continuous  modification.  The  theory  is  that  as  expe- 
rience shows  that  a  certain  law  or  regulation  does  not 
work  well,  it  is  immediately  modified  to  suit  conditions. 

While  it  is  not  possible  within  the  limits  of  this  volume 
to  devote  an  entire  chapter  to  the  methods  of  Russian 
legislation,  which  is  a  subject  of  most  absorbing  interest, 
a  paragraph  may  serve  to  enlighten  the  American  reader 
upon  the  general  idea  upon  which  Russian  legislation  is 
drafted  and  enacted. 

First  of  all,  then,  it  may  be  said  that,  so  far  as  her  writ- 

299 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

ten  laws  are  concerned,  Russia  is  governed  by  commissions. 
If  the  labor  situation  does  not  seem  to  be  satisfactory, 
a  commission  is  appointed,  with  careful  instructions  to 
study  the  causes  by  original  investigation  and  to  report 
recommendations.  If  there  is  agricultural  depression, 
the  same  thing  is  done.  If  the  subject  of  forestry  needs 
attention,  again  there  is  a  commission  to  study,  report, 
recommend. 

When  the  report  is  made  to  the  ministry  to  which  the 
commission  is  attached,  the  assistant  ministers  and  the 
presiding  minister  are  supposed  to  go  over  it  carefully. 
The  result  is  the  drafting  of  a  law.  This  law  is  submitted 
first  to  the  Council  of  Ministers  and  then  to  the  Council 
of  State,  which,  in  theory,  thoroughly  debates  every  pro- 
vision of  it.  In  practice,  it  is  said  that  this  is  seldom 
done;  but  it  must  in  fairness  be  stated  that  it  is  un- 
doubtedly true  that  in  many  important  laws  the  Council 
of  State  does  very  thoroughly  discuss  the  proposed  stat- 
ute. Finally  it  is  submitted  to  the  Czar,  who  approves 
or  disapproves  of  it. 

Again,  the  Russian  law  may  be  for  the  entire  empire, 
or  for  only  a  province,  or  even  for  one  city.  If  it  is  for 
the  entire  empire,  it  is,  as  a  general  thing,  not  immediately 
put  into  effect  among  the  Czar's  one  hundred  and  forty 
million  subjects.  It  is  usually  tried  in  one  province 
first.  If  it  works  well  there,  it  is  gradually  extended  to 
others  until  the  whole  empire  is  covered.  If  it  does  not 
work  well  in  the  first  province,  the  reasons  for  its  de- 
fective operation  are  remedied  by  amendment  before  it 
is  applied  to  other  provinces,  and,  as  its  application 
spreads,  modifications  are  made  as  experience  requires. 
The  theory  is  that  in  this  way  Russian  legislation  is  not 
so  much  the  product  of  some  statesman's  brain  as  it  is 
the  reflection  of  actual  conditions.  It  is  also  said  that 
in  this  way  Russian  legislation  more  carefully  answers 
the  needs  of  the  people  than  the  legislation  of  any  other 
country.     While,  of  course,  an  American  would  not  for  a 

300 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

moment  concede  the  correctness  of  this  view,  it  is  worth 
noting  as  the  beHef  earnestly  entertained  by  those  who 
hold  to  the  existing  order  of  things  in  Russia.  Indeed,  it 
is  claimed  by  these  advocates  of  autocratic  methods  that 
the  processes  of  Russian  legislation,  as  above  briefly 
defined,  are  far  superior  to  the  parliamentary  methods 
existing  in  countries  like  England  and  America. 


XXI 

THE  INDEPENDENT  PEASANT  ARTISAN 

WITH  all  of  Russia's  development  of  her  manufact- 
uring industry  during  the  last  fifteen  years,  her 
mills  do  not  in  any  line  supply  her  own  market.  There 
are  really  very  large  concerns  in  Russia  devoted  to  the 
manufacture  of  railway  locomotives,  of  which  the  es- 
tablishment at  Kolomna  is  the  best  example;  also,  there 
are  mills  for  the  manufacture  of  steel  rails  and  all  other 
items  of  railway  equipment.  Yet  Russia  must  yearly 
import  considerable  numbers  of  locomotives  and  large 
quantities  of  everything  else  necessary  for  her  rapidly 
growing  railway  system.  Most  of  these  ought  to  be 
supplied  by  the  United  States.  In  1901,  most  of  the 
importations  of  railway  equipment  and  general  machin- 
ery, up  to  July  at  least,  were  German.  Before  that 
time  most  of  them  had  been  American ;  and  certainly  the 
bulk  of  imported  agricultural  implements  were  American. 
But  the  tariff  war  precipitated  by  our  controversy  with 
Russia  over  her  sugar  rebates,  which  our  government 
construed  to  be  a  bounty  on  sugar  exports  from  Russia, 
seriously  interfered  with  our  growing  sales  of  American 
manufactured  products  throughout  the  whole  Russian 
Empire.  Other  European  nations  were  quick  to  take 
advantage  of  tliis,  and  of  these  Germany  was  the  most 
aggressive  and  successful.  But,  in  spite  of  this,  Amer- 
ican engines  were  still  the  rule  in  the  Russias  of  the 
Far  East. 

"What  is  that?"  was  asked  of  the  traveller's  Russian 
friend  during  a  cross  -  country  journey  in  the  troika, 

302 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

through  the  lanes  and  over  the  fields  of  his  estates.  What 
was,  apparently,  in  the  near  distance,  a  mound  of  grass- 
grown  earth  rising  in  a  field,  and  perhaps  a  mile  from  a 
small  village  of  a  dozen  or  fifteen  houses,  was  pointed 
out.  A  thin  column  of  smoke  was  rising  from  it — a 
strange  thing  in  the  centre  of  fields  of  ripening  wheat. 

"I  do  not  know  from  here,"  was  the  answer,  "but  I 
think  it  is  a  country  blacksmith-shop.  If  it  is  you  will 
find  it  very  interesting.  It  illustrates  a  vastly  important 
branch  of  Russian  manufacturing  industry,  and  one  pe- 
culiarly and  exclusively  Russian." 

The  narrow  lane,  wheat  -  bordered,  took  the  troika 
directly  in  front  of  this  mound  of  earth,  which  was  found 
to  be  in  reality  a  sort  of  dug-out,  not  unlike  those  which 
the  first  settlers  upon  our  Western  prairies  twenty  years 
ago  rudely  constructed  as  a  temporary  shelter.  It  was 
partly  excavated  from  a  natural  rise  in  the  ground  at  that 
particular  point.  The  walls  above  had  been  constructed 
of  sod;  wooden  rafters  or  poles,  placed  tent-wise  on  top 
of  this  and  covered  with  a  thick  layer  of  earth,  on  which 
grass  was  waving,  constituted  the  roof.  The  whole  space 
inside  made  a  room  not  exceeding  twelve  by  fourteen  feet. 
Yet  within  this  space,  three  men  and  five  boys  were  at 
work.  As  the  troika  stopped,  all  came  out  smiling;  and 
sure  enough  it  was  a  blacksmith-shop,  and  more  than  a 
blacksmith-shop . 

"Oh  yes,"  said  the  father  of  this  little  industrial  ant- 
heap,  "we  do  more  than  blacksmithing — we  make  bolts," 
and  at  a  word  one  of  the  boys  ran  in  and  brought  out  a 
double  handful  of  hand -made  bolts.  "We  also  make 
nuts  for  bolts,  of  course,  and  many  other  things  like  that." 

These  nuts  and  bolts  and  other  things  which  these 
peasant  artisans  fashioned  in  their  rude  earth-shop  were 
marketed  in  the  nearest  city.  "Oh  yes,  there  is  a  demand 
for  more  than  we  can  supply,"  answered  the  father  to  a 
pertinent  question.  "We  get  very  good  prices  for  them, 
too."     The  prices,  however,  were  absurdly  low  in  com- 

303 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

parison  with  American  prices  for  similar  articles  —  ab- 
surdly low,  too,  when  we  consider  the  number  which  each 
man  could  make  in  a  day.  Nevertheless,  three  famihes, 
numbering  many  souls,  live  very  well  indeed,  according 
to  the  Russian  notions  of  living,  on  the  proceeds  of  these 
country  laborers'  toil,  together  with  the  produce  of  their 
fields;  and,  so  far  as  you  can  see,  all  appear  happy  and 
content.  But  the  significant  point  was  that  the  factories 
of  Russia  are  not  making  as  many  iron  things  of  this 
kind  as  are  required  for  the  daily  uses  of  the  country. 

"If  this  work  pays  so  well,  why  don't  all  the  farmer- 
peasants  engage  in  it?" 

"Why,"  said  the  Russian  artisan,  with  plain  surprise 
pictured  on  his  face,  "other  farmers  do  work  at  it,  and 
many  other  things,  too." 

This  answer  revealed  what  investigation  showed  to  be 
one  of  the  most  extraordinary  phases  of  Russian  indus- 
trialism. This  is  that  class  of  Russian  peasant  manu- 
facturing industry  known  as  the  "kustar  trades."  All 
over  this  most  extensive  of  empires,  and  among  all  of 
these  most  numerous  of  peoples,  the  agricultural  peas- 
ants in  their  country  villages  form  little  associations  for 
the  manufacture  of  almost  every  article  used  through- 
out the  Czar's  dominions.  Not  only  this,  but  surpris- 
ing quantities  of  manufactured  goods  wrought  by  these 
peasant  hands  in  their  villages  are  for  export  trade. 
The  little  proup  of  workmen  busily  engaged  in  the  earth- 
constructed  shop  just  described  was  one  of  the  poorest 
and  humblest  of  these  communities  of  peasant  artisans. 
They  were  working  at  their  "kustar  trade"  in  that  short 
period  between  the  cultivation  of  their  fields  and  the 
harvest  of  the  grain  which  was  not  yet  ripe.  Thus  their 
time  and  labor  were  turned  into  productive  industry. 

In  tens  of  thousands  of  the  little  country  villages 
larger  associations  of  these  peasant  working-men  employ 
every  moment  of  their  time  during  the  long  winter  months 
in  some  kind  of  manufacture.     Not  only  the  men,  but 

304 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  women  and  children  work  at  these  trades.  Silk  is 
woven  by  them.  They  produce  cotton  fabrics.  All  kinds 
of  woodwork  are  done  by  them,  and  the  wooden  utensils 
turned  out  are  surprisingly  well  finished.  In  many  lines 
a  fair  degree  of  art  has  been  developed.  For  example, 
the  writer  was  shown  wooden  spoons,  shaped  and  richly 
enamelled  by  peasant  villagers,  and  a  village  of  con- 
siderable size  was  visited  where  the  entire  population 
fashioned  various  forms  of  jewelry.  It  is  said  on  excel- 
lent authority  that  the  Russian  peasant  product  of  jewelry 
annually  runs  up  into  millions  of  articles.  Also,  all  kinds 
of  leather  work  are  done.  Without  consuming  space  to 
enumerate,  it  is  said  that  there  is  nothing  that  these 
peasant  manufacturers  of  Russia  do  not  create,  from 
horse-shoes  to  clothing,  from  icons  to  ink-stands.  Indeed, 
the  immense  majority  of  all  the  painted  saints  and  virgins 
and  other  pictured  sacred  representations  are  the  work 
of  peasant  hands:  and  very  reverent  work  it  is.  No 
amount  of  money,  for  example,  could  induce  a  peasant 
artist  to  paint  or  carve  a  sacred  image  or  picture  in 
different  colors,  attire,  or  attitude  than  those  familiar 
ones  which  immemorial  custom  has  sanctioned. 

While  most  of  the  products  of  peasant's  work  is  con- 
sumed in  Russia  itself,  a  very  respectable  quantity  of  it 
is  exported.  Most  of  these  peasant  exports,  however,  go 
to  Asia.  And  a  curious  and  significant  thing  must  here  be 
noted:  the  prejudices,  likes,  susceptibilities,  and  tastes  of 
the  people  to  whom  these  export  goods  are  sent  are  care- 
fully respected  in  the  manufacture  of  the  articles  intended 
for  them.  In  this  the  imperial  government  helps  the 
peasant  artisan  by  instructing  him  upon  these  points. 
And  instruction  once  received  and  understood  by  the 
Russian  peasant  becomes  a  fixture  in  his  mentality,  and 
is  handed  down  unchanged  throughout  succeeding  gener- 
ations. 

Indeed,  it  is  in  this  way  that  the  "kustar  trades"  were 
first  established  among  the  Slav  millions,  and  that  of 
20  305 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

itself  is  a  curious  tale.  In  the  days  of  serfdom,  the 
nobles  who  owned  these  peasant  slaves  were  reqmred 
to  maintain  them  during  the  entire  year;  and  yet  the 
mass  of  them  was  self-supporting  during  only  the  sum- 
mer months;  in  the  winter  months  much  labor  was 
necessarily  wasted.  A  certain  noble,  possessing  the  com- 
mercial instinct,  hit  upon  a  plan  of  sending  the  brightest 
of  his  peasants  to  the  great  cities  of  the  empire,  there  to 
learn  some  craft,  and  then,  returning,  teach  it  to  his 
fellows,  so  that  the  labor  of  the  serfs  might  be  employed 
to  some  useful  and  profitable  end  during  the  long  months 
of  the  Russian  winter. 

The  idea  was  a  distinct  success.  Other  nobles  imme- 
diately imitated  it,  and  the  practice  grew  until  the  best 
minds  among  all  the  millions  of  Russian  serfs  were  sent 
not  only  to  the  great  cities  of  Russia  itself,  but  to  the 
most  advanced  industrial  centres  of  Germany,  Austria, 
France,  and,  it  is  said,  even  to  England.  When  these 
peasants  were  called  back  they  were  the  masters  of 
numerous  crafts,  which  they  at  once  taught  their  fellow- 
slaves  in  their  remote  and  isolated  Russian  village  homes. 
And  so  it  was  that  the  serfs  became  able,  not  only  to  till 
the  land  of  their  lord,  but  to  make,  with  as  high  degree 
of  skill  as  the  artisans  of  the  most  advanced  countries  of 
Europe,  every  article  required  in  the  domestic  establish- 
ment of  their  noble  owners. 

The  emancipation,  of  which  some  account  will  here- 
after be  given,  did  not  extinguish  these  peasant  industries, 
which  were  as  widely  spread  as  the  empire  itself  and  as 
variegated  as  the  wants  of  the  Russian  people.  And  so 
it  is  that  to-day  the  peasant  manufacturer  constitutes 
the  most  formidable  rival  of  the  great  factories,  which  it 
is  the  present  and  future  policy  of  the  Russian  govern- 
ment to  foster  by  a  protective  tariff  and  by  every  possi- 
ble device. 

And  here  occurs  a  strange  paradox  of  statesmanship. 
As  has  been  stated,  it  is  the  fixed  and  settled  policy  of  the 

306 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Russian  government  to  build  up  great,  centralized  fac- 
tories, such  as  exist  in  other  European  countries  and  in 
America.  It  would  appear  that  this  policy,  if  successful, 
would  destroy  the  peasant  artisan  industry  called  the 
"kustar  trades."  Nevertheless,  the  imperial  government 
carefully  fosters  these  popular  industries,  as  it  does  the 
greater  and  centralized  manufacturing  industries. 

"Why,  certainly  we  encourage  the  'kustar  trades,'" 
said  a  Russian  official.  "For  example,  teachers  are  sent 
at  the  expense  of  the  imperial  government  to  instruct 
these  peasant  manufacturing  communities  in  more  care- 
ful and  exact  workmanship,  and  even  to  teach  them 
new  methods." 

Investigation  proved  this  to  be  the  fact;  and  not  only 
so,  but  colored  prints  are  distributed  among  these  village 
shops  to  guide  the  peasant  in  the  most  remunerative 
forms  of  workmanship.  When  this  is  considered,  and 
when  it  is  remembered  that  the  peasant  artisan  employs 
himself  at  these  trades  during  months  when  his  labor  is 
otherwise  absolutely  wasted  and  worthless,  that  the 
women  and  children  also  work  alongside  of  the  men,  that 
the  labor  thus  furnished  costs  practically  nothing,  that 
they  live  in  their  own  homes  and  consume  the  food  which 
they  themselves,  in  other  portions  of  the  year,  have  pro- 
duced, that  raw  material  is  practically  at  hand,  it  will 
be  seen  that  the  Russian  peasant  manufacturer  in  his 
little  village  shop  is  no  mean  antagonist  for  the  great 
manufacturer  of  the  cities.  Indeed,  many  Russians 
ascribe  the  failure  of  numbers  of  foreign  manufacturing 
enterprises  to  the  competition  of  these  Russian  peasant 
manufacturers,  and  there  is,  no  doubt,  a  reasonable 
amount  of  truth  in  this  explanation. 

Another  industrial  and  economic  paradox  is  afforded 
by  the  growth  of  great  factories  in  Russia  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  persistence  of  the  "kustar  trade"  on 
the  other.  With  the  racial  characteristics  of  the  Slav 
to  community  of  effort,  it  has  been  thought  by  many 

307 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

economists  that  the  modem  tendency  to  industrially  or- 
ganize, which  is  so  marked  in  our  own  country,  notwith- 
standing our  individualism,  would  be  repeated  in  greater 
magnitude  and  by  more  solidly  knit  organizations  in  the 
Russian  Empire.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  these  peasant 
village  manufacturing  shops  are  also  maintained  by  this 
very  instinct  of  the  Slav  to  organize,  for  every  one  of 
these  peasant  trades  is  communistic.  There  is  no  work- 
ing of  individuals  as  individuals  and  for  themselves  alone. 
There  is  no  separate  work  done  even  by  single  families. 
It  is  all  done  by  industrial  communities,  who  work  in 
common  and  have  in  common.  The  building  where  they 
themselves  labor,  and  which  you  may  see  in  almost  every 
Russian  village,  is  built  in  common  and  owned  in  com- 
mon. Even  the  division  of  their  industry  is  on  the  com- 
munistic principle.  For  example,  many  of  the  articles 
produced  by  these  "kustar  trades"  are  so  elaborate  that 
one  community  of  peasants  does  not  undertake  to  do  it  all. 
It  does  part  of  the  work,  and  then  passes  the  unfinished 
article  on  to  another  community,  which  does  another  part 
of  the  work,  and  so  on  until  their  joint  labor  is  completed, 
and  the  proceeds  are  divided  among  all  these  communities, 
and  then  subdivided  by  the  heads  of  each  among  the 
various  families  in  proportion  to  the  work  done  by  each. 
And  so  it  is  that  industrially  the  great  mass  of  Russian 
people  may  be  said  to  be  self-supporting.  Indeed,  the 
boast  is  made  that,  if  every  factory  in  Russia  were  sud- 
denly destroyed,  and  no  imports  of  foreign  goods  allowed, 
it  would  not  greatly  inconvenience  the  larger  part  of  the 
Russian  millions.  They  would  go  right  on,  says  the  en- 
thusiastic Russian,  making  their  rude  wagons  in  the  vil- 
lages, making  what  iron  implements  they  needed,  spin- 
ning and  weaving  and  putting  together  every  item  of 
their  clothing,  and,  in  short,  constructing,  from  the  poorest 
necessity  up  to  the  most  dispensable  luxury,  everything 
required,  regardless  of  all  the  world.  When  one  visits 
the  peasant  artisans  in  the  villages  of  Russia,  hundreds 

308 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

of  miles  from  any  railway,  and  thinks  of  what  is  going  on 
in  this  line  among  this  most  numerous  of  Christian  people, 
the  words  of  Pobyedonostseff,  Procurator  of  the  Holy 
Synod,  again  flash  with  dazzling  brilliancy  before  the 
eye  of  the  inquiring  and  reflecting  mind.  "  Russia,"  said 
Pobyedonostseff,  "is  no  state;  Russia  is  a  worid." 

In  short,  industrially,  the  Russian  people  are  still  an  ele- 
mental people.  The  great  masses  of  the  Russian  people, 
with  their  own  hands,  on  their  own  fields,  and  in  their  own 
homes,  still  make  what  they  wear  and  use. 

Returning  from  the  peculiarly  Russian  phenomenon  of 
the  "kustar  trades"  to  the  conditions  of  the  great  facto- 
ries, and  the  laboring -men  whom  they  are  attracting 
within  their  walls,  and  to  sum  up  this  very  inadequate 
series  of  observations  on  Russian  industrial  conditions,  it 
may  be  fairly  said  that  the  lot  of  the  Russian  laborer  in 
mills  and  factories  is  steadily  improving.  Compared 
with  what  it  was  less  than  a  score  of  years  ago,  the 
progress  has  been  very  considerable  indeed.  Also,  the 
manufacturing  development  is  steadily  influencing  the 
agricultural  population.  More  and  more  a  thin  stream 
of  Russian  agricultural  working-men  are  going  to  the  cities 
in  winter  to  work  in  the  factories,  and  returning  to  their 
homes  in  the  spring  and  summer,  bringing  with  them  new 
ideas,  a  broader  mental  horizon  generally  (though  still 
mean  and  limited  from  our  view-point),  and,  what  is  more 
important,  actual  creature  comforts,  and  even  some  of  the 
more  refined  things  of  civilized  life. 

In  comparison  with  the  millions  of  Russian  peasants, 
this  thin  stream  of  itinerant  workmen  is  perhaps  scarcely 
appreciable.  But  it  flows,  nevertheless,  and  the  volume 
swells.  It  is  unprofitable  to  speculate  as  to  the  future, 
but  the  forecast  may  be  hazarded  that  this  process  will 
continue  until,  as  elsewhere,  Russian  industries  will  be- 
come both  more  diversified  and  yet  more  centraHzed,  the 
number  of  laboring-men  who  work  in  factories  will  in- 
crease; their  skill  with  machinery  will,  year  by  year,  be- 

309 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

come  greater,  and,  finally,  in  the  distant  future  the  steam- 
driven  mechanisms  of  modern  inventive  genius  will  take 
from  the  fingers  of  the  peasant  artisan  the  work  which  he 
and  his  fathers  have  for  centuries  performed.  When  this 
time  comes,  Russia's  industrial  conditions  will  approach 
those  of  Germany,  England,  and  France. 

But  one  thing  appears  probable :  progress  or  no  prog- 
ress, improvement  or  no  improvement,  industrial  classes 
or  not,  Russia  is  not  to  be  feared  as  an  exporting  com- 
petitor, so  far  as  manufacturing  products  are  concerned, 
for  perhaps  a  generation  to  come,  or  maybe  longer. 

It  may  be  that  Russia's  statesmen  prefer  to  depend 
upon  the  ability  of  the  Russian  peasant  to  make  his  own 
clothing  and  implements,  in  gradually  lessening  quantities, 
until  the  centralized  manufacturing  industry  of  Russia 
itself  can  catch  up  with  the  Russian  demand,  and  so  keep 
the  Russian  market  exclusively  for  the  Russian  factories 
and  mills.  If  so,  it  will  be  a  long  process.  This  theory 
is  occasionally  suggested,  and  has  a  substantial  basis  of 
reason.  Certainly  appearances  seem  to  support  it,  and, 
in  addition,  the  one  sovereign  thought  always  in  the  mind 
of  the  Russian  public  man  —  namely,  the  solidarity  of 
the  nation,  would  support  this  view.  Indeed,  arguments 
much  heard  now  in  Russia,  in  support  of  keeping  the  mar- 
kets of  the  empire  for  the  labor  and  capital  of  Russia  itself, 
are  very  similar  to  those  familiar  to  Americans. 

In  the  statement  that  Russia  need  not  be  feared  by  the 
other  commercial  nations  as  an  exporting  competitor  of 
manufactured  articles  in  the  markets  of  the  world,  the 
export  trade  of  Russia  is  borne  in  mind.  Let  us  look  at 
a  table  (see  p.  311)  of  Russian  exports  during  the  last 
three  years,  showing  what  kind  of  merchandise  it  is  that 
Russia  is  selling  abroad.  In  1902  Russia  sold  more  than 
four  hundred  and  ten  million  dollars'  worth  of  merchan- 
dise to  other  countries.  On  their  face,  and  at  first  blush, 
these  figures  appear  formidable;  but  when  we  consider 
that  they  represent  the  total  exports  of  Russia,  and  then 

310 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 


PRINCIPAL  ARTICLES   EXPORTED   FROM   RUSSIA 
DURING  THE   LAST  THREE  YEARS 


Horses. 


Fowls  and  Game 

Cattle,  Sheep,  and  Pigs. 

Brandy  and  Corn  Spirit  . 
Bran 


Bristles. 
Butter. . 
Caviare . 


Clothing,  Ready-made 

Corn,  Flour,  and  Meal,  Total  of 


Com,  Wheat 

Rye 

Barley  

Oats 

Maize 

Pease 

Flour  of  Wheat. 
"     Rye. .  . 


Cotton,  Manufactures  of, 
Eggs  (thousands) 


Flax,  Raw. 
"      Tow. . 


Fur  and  Sheep  Skins. 
Hemp,  Raw 


Leather  and  Hides,  Untanned. . 

Oil-cake 

Oil, Illuminating, Petroleum, etc 

Seeds,  Oleaginous,  Linseed 

Rope  and  Koptrabi  Seed 


Sugar 

Wool  of  all  sorts. .  . 
Wool,  Raw,  Unspun. 


Total   value   of   principal   and 
other  articles R. 


IQOO 


igoi 


No.  58,990  No.  71,900 

R.  5,252,000  R.  6,556,000 

R.  8,658,000  R.  9,547,000 

No.  130,184  No.  156,000 

R-  3.743.000  R.  3,748,000 

R-  575. 000  R.  591,000 

P.  30,684,000  P.  32,403,000 

R.  14,867,000  R.  16,406,000 

P.  133,000  P.  129,000 

R.  5,508,000  R.  5,425,000 

P.  1,190,000  P.  1,968,000 

R.  13,476,000  R.  26,432,000 

P.  191,000  P.  I2Q,000 

R.  2,549,000  R.  1,852,000 

R.  1,182,000  R.  547,000 

P.  420,194,000  P.  466,011,000 

R.  306,402,000  R.  344,166,000 

P.  116,876,000  P.  138,513,000 

R.  104,280,000  R.  122,681,000 

P.  93,227,000  P.  82,732,000 

R.  65,017,000  R.  56,009,000 

P-  53.676,000  P.  77,580,000 

R-  33.675.000  R.  47,930,000 

P.  80,047,000  P.  80,307,000 

R.  49,726,000  R.  58,507,000 

P.  19,057,000  P.  29,706,000 

R.  10,574,000  R.  17,209,000 

P.  4,596,000  P.  5,122,000 

R-  4,153,000  R.  4,654,000 

P-  4,577,000  P.  3,683,000 

R.  7,287,000  R.  5,090,000 

P.  9,752,000  P.  8,956,000 

R.  9,200,000  R.  8,i?i,ooo 

R.  11,719,000  R.  16,924,000 

1,777,000  1,997,000 

R-  31.013,000  R.  35,3Q2.ooo 

P.  10,571,000  P.  8,519,000 

R.  43,829,000  R.  44,438,000 

P.  1,967,000  P.  1,975,000 

R-  5. 257,000  R.  5,554,000 

R.  6,440,000  R.  6,107,000 

P.  2,422,000  P.  2,564,000 

R.  8,147,000  R.  9,864,000 

P.  840,000  P.  701,000 

R.  7,746,000  R.  6,578,000 

P.  22,302,000  P.  23,559,000 

R.  15,530,000  R.  16,743,000 

P.  87,963,000  P.  93,372,000 

R.  46,506,000  R.  52,289,000 

P.  16,941.000  P.  4,565,000 

R.  28,677,000  R.  8,794,000 

P.  3,961,000?.  1,301,000 

R.  3,984,000  R.  1,232,000 

25,274,000  17,630,000 

R.  58.435,000  R.  57,122,000 

P.  852  000  P.  650,000 

R.  s.924,000  R.  5,580,000 


716,418,000  R.  729,815,000  R.  825,277,000 


No. 

R 

R. 

No. 

R. 

R. 

P. 

R. 

P. 

R. 

P. 

R. 

P. 

R. 

R. 

P. 

R 

P. 

R 

P. 

R. 

P. 

R. 

P. 

R. 

P. 

R. 

P. 

R. 

P. 

R. 

P. 

R. 

R. 

R. 
P. 
R. 
P. 
R. 
R. 
P. 
R. 
P. 
R. 
P. 
R. 
P. 
R. 
P. 
R. 
P. 
R. 

R. 
P. 
R. 


578 

432 

185 

162 

98 

69 

104 

64 

63 

49 


91,900 
1,827,000 
1,017,000 
90,000 
,367,000 
,049,000 
,906,000 
,926,000 

143,000 
,854,000 
,309,000 
,415,000 

189,000 
,420,000 

398,000 
,914,000 
,226,000 
,807,000 
,216,000 
,220,000 
,907,000 
,1  20,000 
,135,000 

,313.°°° 
,706,000 
,445,000 
,037,000 
,170,000 
,415,000 
,157,000 
,177,000 
,033,000 
,526,000 
,616,000 
,230,000 
,617,000 
.753.000 
,460,000 
,675,000 
,249,000 
,453,000 
,1  24,000 
,709,000 

851,000 
,941,000 
,530,000 
,1  22,000 
,357.000 
,143,000 
,1  78,000 
,705,000 
,940,000 
,839,000 
,354,000 
,1  22,000 

809,000 
,120,000 


Note. — Figures  for  1901  and  1902  relate  in  most  cases  only  to  trade  over  the 
European  frontier.     1  Pood=36.i  lbs. —  i  Ruble=$.5is 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 


remember  that  they  are  more  than  a  hundred  milHon 
dollars  less  than  the  merchandise  sold  by  the  United 
States  to  the  United  Kingdom  alone,  their  real  impor- 
tance begins  to  assume  its  proper  proportions.  Their 
relative  significance  will  be  disclosed  by  the  considera- 
tion of  just  what  these  exports  consist. 

This  table  speaks  for  itself,  and  discloses  the  fact  that, 
with  the  exception  of  refined  sugar  and  illuminating  oil, 
practically  all  of  Russia's  exports  are  of  raw  material. 
Substantially  none  of  them  are  of  manufactured  goods  in 
the  popular  meaning  of  that  term.  It  will  be  noted  that 
the  value  of  corn,  flour,  and  meal  exported  from  Russia 
in  1902  was  something  over  two  hundred  and  fifteen  mill- 
ion dollars,  while  the  exports  of  manufactures  of  cotton 
were  only  a  little  over  eight  million  dollars;  and  cotton 
manufacturing  is  the  industry  which  Russians  have  most 
carefully  fostered  in  recent  years. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  know  where  these  Russian  ex- 
ports go.  This  is  shown  in  the  following  table  of  exports 
for  the  last  three  years  for  which  figures  are  available. 

TOTAL  VALUE  OF  EXPORTS  OF  DOMESTIC  PRODUCE  (MERCHAN- 
DISE ONLY)  FROM  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  DURING  1898.  1899. 
AND   1900 


Countries 


Finland 

Norway 

Sweden 

Denmark 

Germany 

Holland 

Belgium 

United  Kingdom. 

France 

Spain 

Italy 

Austria-Hungary . 

Greece. 

Roumania 

Turkey 

Persia 

Egypt     

United  States. .  . . 

China 

Other  countries  . 


Rubles 
33,264,000 
4,470,000 
8,316,000 
9,857,000 
179.436,000 

72,2S7,00O 

28,788,000 

139,906,000 

68,594,000 

2,798,000 

54,608,000 

42,416,000 

9,653,000 

12,675,000 

14,478,000 

I7i034,ooo 

6,727,000 

3,014,000 

6,257,000 

18,125,000 


Total 732,673,000    626,983,000    716,418,000 


1899 


Rubles 

35,116,000 
4,948,000 
9,295,000 

12,341,000 
163,564,000 

48.821,000 

23,532,000 
I  29,162,000 

59,869,000 
7,429,000 

27.755,000 

26,637,000 
9,794,000 
6,588,000 

12,682,000 

17,850,000 
5,588,000 
4,388,000 
7,526,000 

14,089,000 


1900 


Rubles 


41 

6 

12 

18 

187 

69 

23 

145 

57 

4 

36 

26 

8 

S 

18 

20 

9 

3 

6 

14 


,034,000 
,419,000 
,742,000 
,278,000 
,635,000 
,304,000 
i353.ooo 
,576,000 
,450,000 
,271,000 
,790,000 
,260,000 
,733,000 
,277,000 
,517,000 
,649,000 
,195,000 
,419,000 
,702,000 
,814,000 


Note. — Figures  for  1901  and  1903  not  available. 
312 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Now  compare  these  Russian  exports  with  Russian  im- 
ports from  the  same  countries  during  the  same  period  : 


Countries 


Finland 

Norway 

Sweden 

Denmark 

Germany 

Holland 

Belgium 

United  Kingdom. 

France 

Switzerland 

Portugal 

Spain 

Italy 

Austria-Hungary . 

Greece 

Roumania 

Turkey 

Egypt 

United  States.  .  .  . 

Brazil 

China 

Persia 

Other  countries  .  . 


Rubles 

19,112,000 

5,394,000 

4,1  21 ,000 

5,249,000 

202,198,000 

9,777,000 

23,608,000 

1 15,295,000 

27,1 10,000 

5,851,000 

1,451,000 

3,250,000 

10,171,000 

23.925.000 

723,000 

1,874,000 

6,867,000 

22,636,000 

50,059,000 

1,278,000 

40,293,000 

21,S5I,000 

15,666,000 


Total 617,459,000    650,485,000    626,375,000 


1899 


Rubles 

18,439,000 

5,620,000 

6,030,000 

3.061,000 

230,871 ,000 

1 1,414,000 

1 7,976,000 

1 29,644,000 

28,481 .000 

7,034,000 

1 ,648,000 

3,1 15,000 

9,259,000 

30,617,000 

916,000 

2,061,000 

7,184,000 

12,998,000 

43,772,000 

561,000 

43.515.000 

21.686,000 

14.583,000 


Rubles 

20,016,000 

5,848,000 

5,1 72,000 

5,900,000 

216,853,000 

8,822,000 

9,086,000 

127,144,000 

31,445,000 

6,199,000 

1,451,000 

4,876,000 

8,93S,ooo 

26,983,000 

761,000 

1,590,000 

7,705:000 

11,963,000 

44,170,000 

256,000 

45.94S.ooo 

20,413,000 

14,842,000 


It  will  be  noted  that,  while  we  buy  of  Russia  between 
one  and  two  million  dollars'  worth  of  merchandise  each 
year,  Russia  purchases  from  us  between  twenty  and 
twenty-five  million  dollars'  worth  of  merchandise  every 
year. 

The  comparative  sales  of  Russian  merchandise  to  other 
countries,  and  Russian  purchases  of  merchandise  from 
these  same  countries,  can  best  be  brought  to  mind  by  a 
balance  table  (see  p.  314)  showing  just  how  much  each 
country  buys  from  and  sells  to  Russia. 

Much  has  been  said  in  these  two  chapters  descriptive  of 
the  iron  and  steel  industry  of  Russia  as  revealed  by  an 
actual  inspection  of  factories  and  mills,  the  condition  and 
efficiency  of  the  labor  there,  etc.  It  has  been  noted  that 
the  growth  of  this  industry  has  been  considerable.  That 
the  total  present  product  of  iron  and  steel  in  Russia  is  not 
overwhelming  is  shown  by  the  actual  number  of  tons  of 

313 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 


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314 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 


pig  iron,  wrought  iron,  and  wrought  steel  produced  during 
the  last  twenty  years.  But  these  figures  also  show  aston- 
ishing growth  in  Russia  in  that  infant  industry — indeed, 
it  may  be  said,  an  industry  actually  created  within  the 
last  quarter  of  a  century.  So  excellent  a  standard  of  in- 
dustrial progress  is  the  production  of  pig  iron,  wrought 
iron,  and  wrought  steel  that  it  is  felt  that  space  can  very 
well  be  spared  at  this  point  to  present  a  table  showing  the 
growth  of  this  industry: 

COMPARATIVE  STATEMENT  SHOWING  THE  PRODUCTION  OF  PIG 
IRON,  WROUGHT  IRON,  AND  WROUGHT  STEEL  IN  THE  RUS- 
SIAN EMPIRE  IN  EACH  OF  THE  UNDERMENTIONED  YEARS 


Year 

Pig  Iron 

Iron 
(Wrought) 

Steel 
(Wrought) 

Tons* 

Tons* 

Tons* 

1881 

469,000 

292,000 

[  No  data 

1882 

463,000 

297,000 

1883 

482,000 

323,000 

222,000 

1884 

510,000 

362,000 

207,000 

1885 

528,000 

362,000 

193,000 

1886 

532,000 

363,000 

242,000 

1887 

612,000 

369,000 

225,000 

1888 

667,000 

374,000 

222,000 

1889 

740,000 

428,000 

259,000 

1890 

926,000 

433.000 

378,000 

1891 

1,005,000 

448,000 

433.000 

1892 

1,072,000 

497,000 

515.000 

1893 

1,149,000 

499,000 

631,000 

1894 

1,332,000 

502,000 

726,000 

1895 

1,452,000 

440,000 

879,000 

1896 

1,612,000 

500,000 

718,000 

1897 

1,869,000 

500,000 

868,000 

1898 

2,224,000 

499,000 

1,146,000 

1899 

2,675,000 

566,000 

1,322,000 

1900 

2,898,000 

565,000 

1,464,000 

1901 

2,784,000 

Note. — The  above  particulars  include  the  production  in  Finland. 
*  Metric  tons  of  2204  pounds. 

Although  not  necessary  for  the  purposes  of  this  chapter, 
it  may  be  interesting  to  set  out  the  associated  facts  as  to 
imports  of  merchandise  into  Russia  during  the  last  three 
years.     Again,  this  can  best  be  done  by  a  table,  which  shall 

315 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 


not  only  state  the  total  amount  of  merchandise  which 
Russia  buys  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  but  also  the  articles 
purchased: 

PRINCIPAL  ARTICLES   IMPORTED   INTO   RUSSIA 


Articles 


Agricultural  Machinery 

Books,  Maps,  etc 

Cement  and  Earths 

Chemicals  and  Drugs 

Coal  and  Coke . 

Coffee,  Raw 

Copper,  Unwrought 

Cotton,  Raw 

Yam 

"         Manufactured 

Dyes,  Coal,  Tar,  etc 

Engines,  Machinery,  and  Parts. . . 

Fish,  Salted  or  Dried 

Fruit:  Oranges  and  Lemons 

Fruits,  Dried :  Figs,  etc 

Glass  and  Glassware 

Hides  and  Skins,  Raw 

India-Rubber  and  Gutta  Percha  . 

Indigo 

Pig  Iron 

Iron  Bars,  etc 

Iron:  Sheets  and  Plates 

Lead,  in  Pigs,  Rolls,  etc 

Litharge 

Metal  Wares,  Iron 

Oils,  other  than  mineral 

Plants  and  Seeds 

Rice 

Silk,  Raw 

Silk,  Yarn  or  twist 

Manufactures,  Silk 

Tea 

Tobacco,  Manufactured  and  Un- 
manufactured   

Watches  and  Clocks 


13,962 
2,29s 

11,875 
1 ,908 
6,036 

12,642 
274,570 

42,298 

503 

5,124 

784 

9,038 

10,289 

68,036 
145 
4,502 
6,488 
62 
3,314 
7,182 

62,759 
8,338 

14,542 
4,648 
5,398 
2,226 
8,496 

479 

21,508 

43 

2,750 

3,i6s 

1,903 

2,782 

4,538 

3,017 

4,600 

3,232 

5,0 1 1 

30,864 

S45 

5,778 

4.785 

0,845 

2,951 

3,674 

83 

13,344 

2 

S68 

4,400 

3,493 

47.223 

57 

2,266 

3,227 

316 


000 

000 

000 

000 
,000 

000 

000 
,000 
,000 

000 

000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000  P. 
,000  R 
,000  R 
,000  R 
,000  R 
,000  .  . 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 

000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 

000 

000 

000 

000 

,000 


000 
,000 


15,867 
2,093 
10,884 
1,5 

6,780 

13,131, 

223,633 

21,431 

562 

3,717 

683 

7,583 

10, 375 

63,795 

137 

4,796 


,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 


70,000 
3,385,000 
4,463,000 

40,658,000 
9,621 ,000 

13,635,000 
5,748,000 
5,821 ,000 
1,033,000 


581, 

19,098, 

48, 

2,817, 

1,847 

857. 

2,290 

2,305 

3,10s 

4,032 

2,587. 

5,009 

28,164 

905 

5,553 

5,625 

ii,Si5 

4,174 

5,119 

98 

11,130 

3 

860 

3,346 

2,887 


000 
000 
000 
000 
000 
000 
000 
000 
000 
000 
000 
000 
000 
000 
000 
,000 
000 
,000 
000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
000 
000 


2,51  2,000 
3,289,000 


1902 


18,255 
1,751 
9,847 
1,544 
5,999 

13,543 
201 ,032 

21,907 

588 

4,852 

1,084 

9,263 

10,866 

68,083 

147 

4,695 


,000 
,000 
,000 
000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,000 
,ooO 


69,000 

3,579,000 

3,866,000 

33,104,000 

9,623,000 

13,323,000 

3,57,5,000 

5,642,000 

1,843,000 


552,000 

18,409,000 

50,000 

2,914,000 

1,1 14,000 

5,537,000 

1,154,000 

1 ,234,000 

2,584,000 

3,456,000 

2,702,000 

4,833,000 

25,974,000 

1,081,000 

5,743,000 

6,047,000 
13,085,000 

3,625,000 

4,371,000 

108,000 

15,524,000 

4,000 

1,046,000 
3,264,000 

4,368,000 


2,504,000 
2,483,000 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 


PRINCIPAL  ARTICLES  IMPORTED  INTO  RUSSIA.— Con^ 


Articles 


1903 


Wine  in  Casks 

Wine  in  the  bottles,  sparkling  and  ( 
other ) 


Wool,  Raw 

Woollen  Yams 

Woollen  Manufactures. 


560,000 

7,485,000 

2,028,000 

5,439,000  R. 

927,000'P. 

I    2,5s6,ooo!R. 

322,000  r. 

io,734,ooo!R. 
7,084,000  R. 


Total  value  of  principal  and  other ) 
articles ) 


R.  626,375,000 


502,000 
6,092,000 

2,007,000 

5,643,000 
1 ,067,000 

16,461 ,000 
501 ,000 

1 7,707,000 
6,242,000 


485,000 
7,4?5.ooo 

2,069,000 

6,019,000 
1,280,000 

19,004,000 
509,000 

15,762,000 
6,639,000 


R-  S3*i944.ooo 


R.  527,095,000 


Note. — Figures  for  1901  and  1902  relate  in  most  cases  to  trade  over  the  Euro- 
pean frontier  only. 

R.— Ruble  (S.5I5)-  P.— Pood  (36.1  lbs.).  B.— Bottle. 

Again,  this  table  is  its  own  best  commentator.  Two 
or  three  items  of  particular  interest  to  American  manu- 
facturers may,  however,  be  profitably  pointed  out.  It 
is  noted  that  the  sale  of  agricultural  miachinery  to  Russia 
in  190?  is  over  $9,000,000  It  will  also  be  observed  that 
these  sales  of  agricultural  implements  are  steadily,  though 
not  rapidly,  increasing.  The  annual  increase  of  Russian 
purchases  of  agricultural  machinery  from  abroad  is  sug- 
gestive. For  example,  from  1897  to  1902  Russia  bought 
agricultural  implements  abroad  as  follows: 


1897 5,590,000  Rubles 

1898 9,594,000 

1899 12,399,000 


igoo 13,962,000  Rubles 

1901 15,867,000        " 

1902 18,255,000        " 


It  is  thus  seen  that  Russian  purchases  of  agricultural 
implements  from  other  nations  show  a  steady  increase  of 
not  far  from  one  million  to  two  million  dollars  a  year. 
This  is  not  a  great  deal,  it  is  true.  But  when  it  is  remem- 
bered that  Russian  agricultural  progress  is  only  in  its 
beginning,  that  agricultural  implements  of  a  modem  kind 
are  still  very  sparingly  used  in  the  Czar's  dominions,  and 
that  once  their  use  is  well  established  and  the  peasantry 
familiarized  with  them,  their  sales  to  the  Russian  a^- 

317 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

cultural  millions  will  be  out  of  all  proportion  to  these 
small  beginnings ;  that  this  hour  is  near  at  hand,  if,  indeed 
it  has  not  already  struck;  and  that,  more  than  all  other 
nations  combined,  the  United  States  has  the  advantage 
in  the  agricultural  implement  trade,  the  importance  of 
this  market  can  be  understood. 

These  remarks  are  also  true  of  engines  and  machinery. 
The  very  significant  fact  is,  however,  to  be  noted  that 
during  the  last  three  years  the  purchases  of  foreign  engines 
and  machinery  by  Russia  have  steadily  fallen  off,  whereas, 
before  1900,  the  growth  of  Russian  purchases  of  engines 
and  machinery  were  extremely  rapid.  For  example,  from 
1897  to  1902  Russia  bought  engines  and  machinery  abroad 
as  follows: 


1897 49,204,000  Rubles 

1898 70,301,000        " 

1899 98,000,000        " 


1900 62,759,000  Rubles 

1901 40,658,000        " 

1902 33,104,000        " 


Many  causes  are  given  for  this  decline,  but  the  two  prin- 
cipal causes  are,  first,  the  growth  of  Russian  factories 
for  the  construction  of  engines  and  machinery,  and,  sec- 
ondly, the  tariff  wars  which  Russia  has  felt  compelled 
to  wage  with  other  countries.  Particularly  is  this  latter 
true  of  Russian  purchases  from  America.  The  dechne 
in  the  sales  in  Russia  of  American  manufactured  articles, 
and  especially  of  machinery  and  engines,  etc.,  was  un- 
doubtedly influenced  by  the  tariff  retaliations  of  Russia 
to  the  action  of  our  government  in  the  matter  of  the 
export  of  Russian  sugar.  Whatever  the  cause,  the  fact 
itself  is  important,  because  the  field  is  new  and  practically 
unexploited. 


XXII 

FEBRUARY    I9,    1861,    THE    BIRTHDAY    OF    RUSSIAN    INDUS- 
TRIAL   FREEDOM 

THE  Russian  peasant  is  the  Russian  nation.  The 
nobiUty,  the  clergy,  the  merchant  form  important 
classes,  it  is  true;  but  the  peasant  so  overwhelmingly 
outnumbers  all  other  classes  combined  that  when  we 
speak  of  the  Russian  people  we  necessarily  mean  the 
Russian  peasantry.  He  it  is  who  tills  the  soil  and  fills 
the  factories;  he  who  consumes  the  tea,  drinks  the  vodka, 
pays  the  taxes;  he  who  equips  the  army  and  fights  the 
empire's  battles;  he  who  mans  the  ships  of  Russia's  grow- 
ing fleets;  he  on  whom  the  whole  government  rests;  he 
who  holds  in  his  breast  the  destiny  of  the  Slav  race. 

On  the  other  hand,  all  institutions  of  Russia  are  his; 
the  Greek  Orthodox  Church  is  the  peasant's  Church;  in 
a  way  not  to  be  comprehended  by  us,  his,  in  the  end,  is 
the  Russian  government  itself.  Indeed,  most  of  the  great 
strokes  of  Russian  statesmanship  have  been  brought  about 
by  peasant  conditions  and  influences;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  Autocrat  has  dealt  mercilessly  with  the  nobles. 
From  the  days  of  Ivan  the  Terrible  down  to  the  time  of 
Peter  the  Great,  the  Czar  of  the  Russian  people  smote 
the  nobles  with  mailed  hand;  and  so,  within  the  memory 
of  living  man,  the  ruler  of  the  Russian  people  again  struck 
down  the  nobility  and  exalted  the  peasantry  in  a  fashion 
which  in  other  lands  might  have  caused  bloody  resist- 
ance. 

Indeed,  in  all  of  its  legislation  the  prejudices,  customs, 
and  conditions  of  the  peasant  are  powerful  circumstances 

319 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

influencing  the  laws  formulated  by  Russian  statesmen 
and  issued  under  the  hand  of  the  Czar. 

The  Autocrat  of  all  the  Russias  may  do  what  he  likes 
with  noble  or  with  merchant;  but  if  he  dared  trifle  with 
the  Russian  Church  he  would  find  himself  confronted 
with  furious  millions  of  peasantry,  from  one  end  of  his 
empire  to  the  other.  For  example,  the  whole  religious 
world  knows  how  the  mere  change  of  one  letter  in  spelling 
of  the  word  "Jesus"  almost  caused  a  revolution  and  split 
the  ancient  Church  of  Russia  into  fragments  that  two 
centuries  have  not  sufficed  to  unite.  Again,  if  the  Czar 
should  attempt  suddenly  to  destroy  the  communal  system, 
by  which  the  peasantry  live  and  work  in  common,  all  his 
bayonets  could  not  enforce  it. 

To  understand  Russia,  then,  it  is  clear  we  must  have 
some  conception  of  that  shaggy,  undeveloped,  but  also 
unexhausted  giant,  the  Russian  peasant.  Of  course,  we 
cannot  even  then  hope  to  understand  Russia  entirely; 
for,  as  has  been  said,  no  man,  Russian  or  foreigner,  can 
comprehend  this  strange  human  mosaic,  which  is  even 
yet  in  the  process  of  formation,  so  contradictory  are  its 
various  elements  and  yet  so  homogeneous;  from  such 
different  sources,  racial  and  historical,  spring  the  influ- 
ences which  control  and  form  it.  Indeed,  no  attempt  will 
be  made  to  comprehensively  describe  the  peasant  himself. 
But  a  few  fundamental  facts  may  be  given  which  will  be 
helpful  in  understanding  this  unfamiliar  being  of  whose 
work  and  future  this  volume  so  largely  deals. 

The  greatest  fact  in  connection  with  the  Russian  peas- 
antry is  the  emancipation  of  Russian  serfs,  proclaimed 
February  19,  1861.  Most  other  facts  lead  up  to  this;  all 
subsequent  facts  lead  down  from  it.  And  in  addition  to 
this  stupendous  feat  of  autocratic  statesmanship  in  the 
interest  of  human  liberty,  affording  the  view-point  from 
which  both  the  past  and  the  future  of  the  Russian  people 
must  be  surveyed,  it  is  also  the  most  amazing  circum- 
stance of  its  kind  in  the  history  of  the  world.     Indeed, 

320 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

it  is  the  only  circumstance  of  its  kind.  At  first  it  was 
thought  by  some  students  that  the  emancipation  of  the 
peasant  in  Pinissia  and  Austria  were  similar,  although 
on  a  comparatively  small  scale.  But  students  now  un- 
derstand that  these  incidents,  while  bearing  some  re- 
semblance to  the  Russia  achievement,  were  not  at  all 
the  same  thing;  while  the  emancipation  of  the  American 
slaves  by  Abraham  Lincoln  bears  only  surface  resemblance 
to  the  emancipation  of  the  Slav  bondman.  What,  then, 
of  this  astonishing  exercise  of  autocratic  power  in  the 
liberation  of  the  humble  millions,  for  whose  oppression 
the  autocracy  was  supposed  to  exist? 

The  study  of  the  processes  by  which  the  Russian 
peasant  degenerated  into  slavery  is  interesting,  but  neither 
the  purpose  nor  limits  of  this  volume  admit  of  historical 
references  except  where  absolutely  necessary.  At  this 
particular  point  it  is  enough  to  say  that  in  the  middle  of 
the  nineteenth  century  the  overwhelming  majority  of  the 
Russian  people  were  serfs.  The  Russian  peasant  was  a 
slave.  He  labored  for  an  absolute  master.  His  toil  was 
the  subject  of  barter  like  that  of  cattle  or  mules.  Men 
and  women  were  bought  and  sold.  This  slavery  of  a  na- 
tion was  attended  by  most  of  the  degrading  effects  char- 
acteristic of  human  bondage  everywhere. 

This  was  the  situation  when  Alexander  the  Liberator 
determined  at  a  single  stroke  to  free  the  scores  of  millions 
of  Russian  serfs.  Nor  was  this  a  mere  whim  of  autocratic 
leniency.  The  emancipation  of  the  Russian  serfs  was 
the  result  of  a  national  movement.  It  was  dictated  by 
public  opinion.  The  Czar  expressed  in  concrete  form 
the  thought  of  the  Russian  nation.  He  merely  gave 
practical  effect  to  the  purposes  of  Russian  progress.  The 
elements  of  the  whole  mighty  question  were  discussed  in 
Russian  novels,  much  as  negro  slavery  in  the  United 
S+.ates  was  brought  to  the  mind  and  conscience  of  the 
American  people  by  similar  means.  Every  phase  of  the 
proposed  reform  was  debated  in  the  Russian  press.  Even 
?i  321 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Nicholas,  in  1848,  had  appointed  a  commission  for  the 
study  of  this  tremendous  subject;  and  so  it  was  that  the 
Czar  Alexander,  in  becoming  "the  Liberator,"  merely 
reflected  the  soul  of  Russia. 

The  Russian  slave  was  to  be  given  not  only  his  personal 
liberty,  by  which  is  meant  his  right  to  work,  and  himself 
.  enjoy  the  fruits  thereof,  instead  of  being  compelled  to 
labor  for  another  without  reward;  the  Russian  states- 
man's thought  went  farther  and  declared  that  this  serf 
should  be  endowed  with  land.  Not  only  were  his  chains 
to  be  broken,  but  he  was  to  be  given  the  implements  of 
livelihood;  not  only  was  he  to  be  made  as  free  in  his  per- 
sonal relations  as  the  merchant  or  nobleman  who  owned 
him,  but  he  was  also  to  be  made  the  owner  of  the  soil  to 
which  he  had  been  chained. 

Nor  was  this  all  to  be  done  recklessly,  thoughtlessly. 
The  details  of  it  were  maturely  thought  out  by  the  com- 
mission of  experts  appointed  by  the  Czar.  The  vast 
movement  had  its  own  particular  statesman  in  the  person 
of  Nicholas  Malutin,  one  of  the  notable  constructive  re- 
formers of  history.  This  practical  dreamer  and  his  asso- 
ciates, all  men  of  extraordinary  ability,  singleness  of  pur- 
pose, and  martyr-like  devotion  to  high  ideals,  gave  the 
best  work  of  their  lives  to  solving  this  complicated 
problem  of  progress. 

Finally,  on  February  19,  1861,  their  work  was  given 
practical  effect  by  the  proclamation  of  emancipation  pro- 
nounced on  that  day  to  the  assembled  peasants  in  every 
church  of  Russia,  and  from  that  day  until  the  present 
time  the  work  of  carrying  out  this  vast  plan  has  been  in 
progress.  Remembering  now  that,  before  this  date,  the 
great  body  of  the  Russian  nation  were  serfs ;  remembering 
that  their  labor  and  persons  were  bought  and  sold;  re- 
membering that  they  owned  not  a  single  foot  of  land, 
nor  even  the  miserable  huts  in  which  they  dwelt;  re- 
membering the  brutalities  to  which  for  ages  they  had 
been  subjected  (though  inconsiderable  in  severity  com- 

322 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

pared  to  the  treatment  of  serfs  or  slaves  in  other  coun- 
tries); remembering  these  things,  let  us  consider  what, 
by  a  single  act,  the  Czar  of  Russia  accomplished  for  these, 
the  real  Russian  people. 

First  of  all,  the  serf  was  given  his  personal  property  as 
his  ver}'-  own.  He  was  given  the  dwelling  in  which  he 
lived  and  the  ground  on  which  it  stood  as  his  absolute 
possession.  He  was  endowed  with  the  liberty  to  labor  for 
himself  and  use  the  proceeds  of  his  toil  as  he  might  see 
fit;  and,  lastly,  he  was  given,  under  provisions  for  its 
payment,  land  which  now  amounts  to  upward  of  four 
hundred  million  acres.  This  was  done  in  order  to  make 
the  people  of  Russid|;^  land-owning  people.  It  was  done 
to  give  them  a  permknent  and  inalienable  "stake  in  the 
country."  The  Czar  desired  that  an  empire  of  land- 
owning nobles  should  be  transformed  into  an  empire  of 
land-owning  people.  And  this  rule  was  applied  impar- 
tially to  the  serfs  and  lands  belonging  to  the  Czar  himself 
(to  "the  Crown,"  as  the  technical  expression  is),  as  well  as 
to  the  lands  and  slaves  belonging  to  the  nobles. 

It  was  as  if  the  United  States,  when  it  freed  the  negro 
slaves  from  their  Southern  masters,  had  at  the  same  time 
given  them,  under  provisions  for  payment,  the  lands  of 
their  late  owners.  Nor  is  this  comparison  sufficiently 
radical.  If  at  the  time  of  our  civil  war  four-fifths  of 
the  people  of  the  United  States  had  been  slaves,  we 
should  have  had,  comparatively  speaking,  the  situation 
which  confronted  Russian  reformers  when  Alexander 
issued  his  ukase  of  freedom.  Nor  does  this  adequately 
state  the  relative  situations.  If,  in  addition  to  this 
overwhelming  majority  of  slave  population,  the  land 
of  the  United  States  had  been  held  by  a  very  small 
fraction  of  the  already  small  number  who  were  not  slaves, 
we  should  have  had  precisely  the  agrarian  conditions 
which  existed  in  Russia  on  February  19,  1861.  And 
if,  with  these  conditions  existing  in  the  United  States  at 
the  time  of  our  civil  war,  this  immense  majority  of  our 

323 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

population,  being  slaves,  had  suddenly  been  made  free, 
and  hundreds  of  millions  of  acres  of  land  had  been  taken 
from  the  private  owners  thereof  and  placed  in  the  pos- 
session of  the  newly  freed  slaves,  we  should  have  had 
exactly  the  social  and  industrial  revolution  which  the 
Russian  Czar  effected  by  his  autocratic  signature. 

In  thus  taking  from  the  nobles  the  land  which  belonged 
to  them,  and  giving  it  to  the  slaves,  it  made  no  differ- 
ence that  the  noble  objected.  A  maximum  and  minimum 
amount  of  land,  belonging  to  the  nobles,  was  fixed  by 
the  government,  and  with  this  he  was  compelled  to  part, 
whether  he  wanted  to  or  not.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
peasants  were  compelled  to  take  at  least  the  minimum 
amount  of  land,  whether  they  wanted  to  or  not.  This 
minimum  of  land  was  calculated  to  be  sufficient  to  serve 
the  needs  of  the  community  which  was  compelled  to  take 
it,  for  the  land  went  to  the  communities  and  not  to  the 
individual  peasants.  Any  attempt  to  force  the  land  on 
individual  peasants  would  have  been  fruitless.  Accus- 
tomed as  he  is  to  living  and  working  in  common,  the 
Russian  peasant  was  incapable  of  taking  and  cultivating 
the  land  individually,  as  an  American  farmer  does,  if, 
indeed,  the  Russian  is  not  incapable  of  doing  this  as  a 
matter  of  nature. 

Within  certain  limits  the  peasant  and  the  proprietor 
were  permitted  to  make  their  own  terms,  and  to  these 
terms,  once  made,  both  parties  were  compelled  to  ad- 
here. For  example,  one  provision  of  the  law  permitted 
the  noble  proprietor  to  give  absolutely,  and  without  pay- 
ment, one-fourth  of  the  maximum  of  the  land  designated 
by  the  government  to  the  peasant;  and  if  the  peasant 
accepted  it,  the  noble  proprietor  was  released  from  the 
necessity  of  parting  with  any  more  of  his  land.  In  many 
instances  the  peasant  availed  himself  of  this  provision, 
being  influenced  by  the  universal  human  desire  to  get 
something  for  nothing,  with  the  result  that  such  peasants 
soon  found  themselves  comparatively  impoverished. 

324 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

As  in  every  undertaking  of  large  dimensions,  even  when 
most  carefully  thought  out,  it  was  found  that  this  great  re- 
fonn  did  not  work  as  well  as  had  been  expected.  For  ex- 
ample, where  aiTangements  had  been  made  between  the 
noble  and  the  peasant  for  payment  for  the  land  thus 
taken  from  the  noble  and  sold  to  the  peasant,  the  peasant 
was  still  to  be  under  "temporary  obligations"  until  the 
payment  was  made.  It  was  found  that  these  "temporary 
obligations"  were  rapidly  degenerating  into  the  condi- 
tions of  serfdom  from  which  the  whole  movement  was 
designed  to  lift  him.  On  the  other  hand,  the  noble  was 
seriously  crippled  in  the  operation  of  his  estate  by  are- 
form  which  changed  everything  and  yet  left  old  conditions. 
It  can  be  truthfully  said  that  a  few  years  after  the  eman- 
cipation, agriculturally  and  economically,  Russia  was  in 
a  state  of  chaos. 

The  government  promptly  came  to  the  aid  of  both 
peasant  and  noble.  It  was  arranged  that  the  government 
itself  should  pay  the  noble  for  the  land,  and  that  the 
peasant  should  be  responsible  for  his  pa3''ment  to  the 
government,  instead  of  to  the  noble.  This  involved  an 
immediate  expenditure  on  the  part  of  the  Russian  govern- 
ment so  immense  that  no  treasury  could  stand  the  drain ; 
and,  therefore,  government  scrip  or  bonds  of  two  classes 
was  issued  to  the  nobles  in  payment  of  the  lands  of  which 
they  had  thus  been  deprived.  Both  of  these  classes  of 
government  securities  were  negotiable,  one  of  them 
easily  and  the  other  with  difficulty.  The  nobles,  finding 
themselves  in  sore  financial  need,  immediately  disposed 
of  their  securities,  which,  of  course,  depreciated;  and  it  is 
still  the  wonder  of  students  of  the  science  of  money  that 
Russia  escaped  a  financial  catastrophe  from  which  she 
could  not  recover.  But,  while  experiencing  embarrass- 
ments, the  empire  passed  through  the  crisis  without  serious 
difficulty. 

The  consequences  to  the  nobles  were  desperate  and 
permanent.     Large  numbers  of  them,  following  the  profli- 

325 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

gate  habits  of  their  former  hves,  squandered  their  cash 
and  mortgaged  the  remainder  of  their  holdings.  In  this 
way  many  splendid  estates  have  passed  from  noble  into 
capitalist  hands.  Others  of  the  nobility  embarked  in 
commercial  and  manufacturing  pursuits,  with  varying  de- 
grees of  success.  Through  the  change  wrought  by  the 
emancipation,  it  may  be  said  that  the  Russian  nobihty, 
as  a  class,  were  all  but  ruined.  Vast  estates  in  Russia 
are  still  held  in  noble  hands,  but  they  are  insignificant 
compared  with  the  holdings  of  half  a  century  ago,  and 
thousands  of  Russian  nobles  have  become  both  moneyless 
and  landless. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  peasants,  of  course,  could  not 
immediately  pay  for  the  lands  which  the  great  majority  of 
them  had  been  forced  to  take.  This  was  true  even  where 
the  peasantry  availed  themselves  of  the  provisions  of  the 
emancipation  and  voluntarily  took  over  the  lands  of  the 
nobles.  So  the  government  arranged  that  the  peasant 
might  repay  the  government  in  instalments.  These  in- 
stalments were  to  continue  for  a  period  of  forty-nine 
years,  capitalized  at  six  per  cent,  on  the  value  of  the 
lands  estimated  in  dues.  This  annual  payment  of  six 
per  cent,  was  to  extinguish,  in  that  period  of  time,  the 
peasant's  entire  indebtedness,  both  principal  and  interest. 
To  facilitate  this  process,  as  well  as  to  aid  the  nobihty 
with  its  scrip,  land  banks  were  established  all  over  the 
empire.  Even  this  was  not  enough.  The  peasants  were 
continually  falling  into  arrears,  and  more  than  once  the 
government  has  extended  the  time  of  the  peasant's  pay- 
ments, and  it  is  said  that  remittances  of  arrears  have 
more  than  once  been  made.  Indeed,  it  is  proposed  to 
remit  the  entire  remaining  indebtedness  of  the  peasantry 
for  the  land  which  it  now  owns. 

The  effect  of  this  unparalleled  act  of  statesmanship  has 
been  complex,  far-reaching,  and  contradictory.  In  Russia 
you  can  get  no  two  opinions  about  it  that  entirely  agree. 
Any  view  expressed  will  be  contradicted  by  some  one. 

326 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

It  was  not  entirely  satisfactory  to  anybody.  The  nobles 
bitterly  complained  after  they  had,  by  reckless  ex- 
penditure or  bad  investments,  been  seriously  injured  or 
absolutely  ruined.  The  peasants  complained  because  it 
was  inconvenient  to  make  the  payments  for  the  land 
with  which  they  had  been  endowed.  Indeed,  they  ob- 
jected to  making  any  payments  at  all.  They  had  heard 
of  the  emancipation  which  was  coming,  and  they  had 
looked  upon  it  as  an  event  which  would  not  only  give 
them  their  personal  liberty,  but  also  bestow  upon  them, 
without  money  and  without  price,  the  lands  of  the 
nobles. 

You  will  be  informed  by  authority  whose  disinterested- 
ness and  accuracy  you  cannot  possibly  doubt,  that  there 
are  peasants  in  Russia  who  still  look  for  a  second  emanci- 
pation, giving  them  new  additions  of  land  absolutely  and 
without  any  cost  whatever  to  themselves.  They  soon 
forgot  the  severities  of  serfdom,  and  remembered  only  the 
comparatively  trivial  inconveniences  of  the  present.  Also, 
as  their  families  increased  and  the  lands  owned  by  entire 
communes  had  to  be  subdivided  into  smaller  lots,  the 
amount  given  them  by  the  original  emancipation  has 
gradually  and  rapidly  become  insufficient,  although  it  was 
sufficient  at  the  time  of  the  emancipation.  This  difficulty 
is  partly  overcome  by  emigration  to  Siberia  and  by  the 
increased  manufacturing  industries  which  take  numbers 
of  the  commune,  through  a  portion  of  the  year  at  least, 
to  the  great  factory  centres. 

Again,  a  curious  set  of  conditions  arose  which  has 
given  all  parties  concerned  endless  trouble,  but  which, 
of  course,  cannot  be  said  to  be  insurmountable.  For 
example,  when  the  Russian  peasant  was  the  slave  of  his 
owner  he  felt  perfectly  free  to  use  all  his  master's  tools, 
implements,  and  other  property;  indeed,  it  was  his  duty. 
He  has  not  yet  been  able  to  get  it  through  his  head  that 
although  he  is  released  from  the  obligation  of  working 
for  nothing  for  his  master,   he  is  not  correspondingly 

327 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

obliged  to  refrain  from  using  everything  belonging  to 
his  master,  as  in  the  old  days.  Again,  in  the  days  of 
bondage  he  was  at  liberty  to  cut  from  the  forests  on  his 
master's  domains  the  timber  necessary  to  build  himself 
a  house,  or  for  any  other  purposes;  and  even  to  the 
present  day  he  is  not  able  to  understand  why,  when 
there  happens  to  be  no  forests  on  the  lands  belonging  to 
his  commune,  he  may  not  cut  timber  from  the  lands  of 
the  man  who  was  formerly  his  master,  exactly  as  he 
used  to  do. 

The  most  curious  situations  are  even  yet  arising,  grow- 
ing out  of  this  inability  of  the  peasant  to  comprehend 
the  obligation  as  well  as  the  benefits  of  his  emancipation. 
Liberties  are  taken  by  the  Russian  peasant  with  the 
property  of  a  Russian  proprietor  which  would  not  be 
tolerated  for  an  instant  by  an  American  in  the  same 
situation.  In  all  of  this  there  is  not  the  slightest  im- 
pertinence, not  the  least  intention  to  wrong  the  landed 
proprietor,  nor  the  faintest  conception  on  the  part  of  the 
peasant  that  there  is  anything  immoral  in  what  he  does. 
He  or  his  fathers  did  the  like  before,  and  he  just  continues 
to  do  the  same  as  a  matter  of  course.  Nevertheless,  this 
inability  to  distinguish  property  rights  is  gradually  fading 
away.  When  the  peasant  is  remonstrated  with  he  is  all 
humility  and  repentance,  and  this  humility  is  real  and 
this  repentance  is  very  genuinely  felt. 

Another  curious  effect  of  emancipation  upon  the 
Russian  peasant  was  the  occurrence  of  the  exact  reverse 
of  what  Americans  would  expect  to  happen  under  hke 
circumstances.  It  would  be  urged  by  the  theorists  here, 
or  indeed  anywhere,  that  for  people  formerly  slaves  to 
be  given  their  liberty,  and  formerly  landless  to  be  pre- 
sented with  farms,  would  necessarily  induce  them  to 
greater  individual  effort  and  to  improved  methods  of 
agriculture.  Indeed,  this  very  argument  was  asserted 
with  vehemence  and  iteration  in  Russia  itself,  as  one  of 
the  expected  beneficent  results  of  liberation;  but  noth- 

328 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

ing  of  the  kind  immediately  occurred.  Indeed,  nothing 
of  the  kind  became  manifest  for  several  decades.  On  the 
contrary,  the  first  efifects  were  the  exact  reverse;  and  this 
might  have  been  expected  had  the  Russian  reformers 
looked  through  the  spectacles  of  the  practical  instead  of 
gazing  into  the  mists  of  fancy.  For  the  Russian  slave 
who  found  himself  thus  suddenly  freed  and  equipped  with 
independent  land  holdings  actually  retrograded  agricult- 
urally. This  is  true,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  it  is 
hard  to  think  that  agriculture  could  retrograde  in  Russia, 
so  bad  was  it  at  that  time,  so  bad  is  it  even  now. 

But  the  Russian  peasant  lacks  initiative.  As  has  been 
pointed  out,  this  appears  to  be  a  racial  peculiarity  of 
the  Slav.  Also,  an  influence  common  to  all  countries 
worked  within  the  breast  of  the  newly  liberated  serf — 
he  had  yielded  simple  obedience  to  simple  command 
in  the  old  days.  He  was  merely  ordered  about  and  did 
precisely  what  he  was  directed  to  do;  so  when  he  was 
left,  in  a  measure,  to  shift  for  himself,  he  did  not  know 
what  to  do.  Before  the  emancipation  many  of  the 
nobles  were  beginning  to  introduce  new  methods  of 
agriculture;  indeed,  large  numbers  of  them  were  doing 
this,  but  even  with  the  aid  of  their  authority,  inteUigent 
direction,  and  abundance  of  ready  money  with  which  to 
buy  implements,  improved  methods  of  agriculture  were 
introduced  with  the  greatest  possible  difficulty.  Even 
these  progressive  nobles  found  it  hard  to  get  the  peasant 
to  abandon  the  methods  of  his  forefathers,  so  deeply 
steeped  was  he  in  custom.  The  Russian  peasant  is 
saturated  with  precedent. 

Nevertheless,  of  course,  under  the  old  conditions  thus 
briefly  described,  perceptible  progress  was  making.  But 
with  the  new  order  of  things  established  by  the  emancipa- 
tion the  authority  of  the  noble  over  the  peasant  was 
abolished,  his  financial  ability  paralyzed,  and,  worst  of 
all,  his  personal  interest,  which  influenced  him  to  im- 
prove Russian  agricultural  methods,  was  suddenly  ex- 

329 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

tinguished.  So  one  of  the  first  effects  of  emancipation 
was  a  positive  reaction  in  agricultural  progress.  No  new 
farm  implements  for  the  freed  slave;  he  refused  to  use 
them  when  he  was  a  serf  except  upon  the  insistent  orders 
of  his  lord;  very  well,  he  certainly  would  not  use  them 
now.  No  iron  or  steel  ploughs  for  him;  he  found  them 
heavy  and  difficult  in  the  days  of  bondage;  now  in  the 
days  of  liberty  he  would  return  to  or  continue  the  wooden 
plough  of  his  youth.  No  reaper  for  him;  the  few  of  his 
brothers  whom  certain  advanced  nobles  had  compelled 
to  work  those  awkward  machines  never  understood 
them;  and,  now  that  he  was  free,  his  hands  and  his 
sickle  were  quite  good  enough.  And,  besides,  all  of  these 
innovations  of  the  evil  one  were  expensive.  And  did  not 
the  good  Czar  require  him  even  to  pay  for  the  land  that 
he  had  been  compelled  to  take? 

This  agricultural  retrogression  furnished  multitudes  of 
instances  with  which  pessimists  in  and  out  of  Russia 
fortified  their  arguments  against  the  possibility  of  any 
real  material  advancement  in  the  conditions  of  the  Rus- 
sian people;  but  to  the  man  who  looked  beyond  the 
hour  a  more  hopeful  horizon  appeared.  It  was  inevitable 
that  in  time  the  Russian  peasant,  having  grown  accus- 
tomed to  his  new  industrial  independence,  would  himself 
perceive  the  advantage  of  better  m  thods  of  farming. 
It  was  clear,  too,  that  it  would  be  not  only  the  interest 
but  the  actual  necessity  of  the  government  to  instruct 
him  to  use  the  modern  inventions  in  the  tilling  of  his 
land  and  to  aid  agricultural  industry  by  every  possible 
means. 

And  of  course,  just  these  plainly  inevitable  things  are 
beginning  to  arrive — have  even  now  arrived  to  a  degree 
astonishing  when  we  consider  the  condition  of  the  Russian 
peasant  within  the  memory  of  living  men  and  take  into 
account  also  his  racial  lethargy.  Everywhere  throughout 
the  empire  the  latest  agricultural  implements  are  being 
introduced.     You   may    now    find    the   most    improved 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

threshing-machines  at  work  in  more  than  one-quarter  of 
the  Czar's  domain.  American  reapers  may  actually  be 
said  to  be  numerous,  and  if  the  use  of  steel  ploughs  con- 
tinues to  grow  as  it  has  recently  grown  they  will  be  in 
practically  universal  employment  among  the  scores  of 
millions  of  Russian  farmers  before  two  decades  have 
passed  away.  A  single  illustration  will  show  how  the 
Russian  peasant,  whose  father  was  a  slave  and  whose 
ancestors  for  generations  have  known  nothing  but  the 
wooden  plough,  is  now  taking  to  the  steel  implement  in- 
stead, and  how  the  government  is  encouraging  him. 

After  a  long  day's  journey  in  the  agricultural  districts 
of  the  "black  belt"  (the  black-soil  district  of  Russia), 
we  came  to  a  country  town  which  was  the  seat  of  local 
government  for  that  particular  section.  In  this  town 
is  a  large  store  for  the  supply  of  the  simple  needs  of  that 
agricultural  neighborhood,  and  here  great  numbers  of  steel 
ploughs  of  different  sizes  and  prices  were  found.  They 
were  of  Russian  manufacture,  and  sold  to  the  peasant  at 
very  little  above  the  cost  of  the  making  and  the  trans- 
portation. 

"Oh  yes,"  said  a  young  man  who  had  charge  of  this 
department,  himself  a  peasant,  "we  sell  great  numbers 
of  these  ploughs  and  the  demand  is  rapidly  increas- 
ing." 

"Yes,"  said  my  Russian  friend,  "the  worst  pessimist 
now  admits  that  our  common  people  are  at  last  making 
tangible  progress  in  agricultural  industry,  and  I  must 
admit  that  the  government  seems  to  be  waking  up  in 
this  vital  department  of  our  national  life.  It  is  doing 
all  it  can  to  encourage  every  agricultural  improvement 
among  the  people.  And  that  the  people  on  their  side 
are  taking  kindly  to  it  is  evidenced  not  only  by  the 
sales  of  these  ploughs,  but  by  the  more  important  cir- 
cumstance that  this  is  a  co-operative  store.  The  whole 
enterprise  is  a  mutual  undertaking.  There  is  no  profit  in 
it  for  any  one,  and  the  prices  of  the  various  things  there 

33^ 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

sold  are  only  enough  above  their  actual  cost  to  pay  the 
expenses  of  running  the  establishment." 

It  is  said  that  these  little  communistic  establishments 
are  forming  all  over  the  empire.  They  are  very  much 
like  the  granger  store  with  which  the  American  public  be- 
came familiar  in  the  great  farmer  movement  of  the  seven- 
ties. Their  bottom  idea  is  similar  to  that  of  those  Amer- 
ican socialistic  enterprises  which  with  us  flourished  for 
a  few  brief  months  and  then  died  at  the  hands  of  that 
individualism  which  appears  to  be  an  ineradicable  part 
of  the  Anglo  -  Saxon  nature.  But  it  is  by  no  means 
certain  that  a  like  fate  awaits  the  Russian  granger 
store.  Indeed,  it  is  more  probable  that  it  will  en- 
dure; for  it  has  back  of  it  the  racial  tendency  of  the 
Russian  to  do  business  on  the  communistic  principle. 
Where  like  undertakings  by  Americans  or  English- 
men, or  even  Germans,  would  first  be  interrupted  by 
contentions  and  then  distracted  by  quarrels,  and  finally 
break  down  by  the  inability  of  the  various  members  of 
the  association  to  agree  among  themselves,  the  same 
number  of  Russians  get  along  very  well  together,  and 
practically  without  antagonism.  In  addition  to  this  it 
must  be  remembered  that  the  influence  of  the  govern- 
ment is  always  favorable  to  every  form  of  communistic 
industry.  Indeed,  the  Russian  state  may  be  said  to  be 
at  the  bottom  communistic.  The  government's  policy 
in  this  particular  is  not  so  much  the  plan  of  cunning 
statecraft  as  it  is  obedience  to  the  tendencies,  conditions, 
and  natural  aptitudes  of  the  Russian  people. 

Again,  instead  of  increasing  the  independence,  alertness, 
and  energy  of  the  Russian  peasant,  the  first  effect  of  the 
emancipation  was  the  contrary.  The  shiftlessness  of  the 
slave  became  the  lethargy  of  the  freedman.  In  bondage 
the  serf  worked  only  as  much  as  he  was  forced  to;  in 
liberty  the  freedman  would  work  just  as  little  as  he  possi- 
bly could.  But  this  effect  also  was,  historically  speak- 
ing, temporary,  although  it  has  taken  decades  to  work  a 

332 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

change.  Indeed,  the  unsympathetic  foreign  observer  who 
usually  contents  himself  with  a  little  country  journey  of 
a  day  or  two  out  of  Moscow  or  some  other  large  Russian 
city,  where  he  spends  most  of  his  time  in  witnessing 
cathedrals  and  admiring  pictures,  will  declare  that  the 
Russian  agricultural  laborer  is  hopeless  as  respects  his 
personal  industry,  his  methods  of  farming,  and  his 
character  as  a  man.  And  such  an  observer  will  cite 
scores  of  instances  to  establish  the  truth  of  this  general- 
ization. 

For  example,  the  writer  observed  within  easy  sight 
of  Moscow  itself  a  peasant  ploughing  land  with  the  same 
kind  of  wooden  implements  with  which  his  ancestors  tilled 
the  same  soil  in  the  days  of  the  Tartar  subjugation. 
Bare-headed,  his  profuse  mane  of  hair  loose  to  the  winds, 
his  cotton  blouse  belted  around  him,  his  one  poor  horse 
hitched  to  the  ancient  plough  which  his  own  hands  had 
hewed  from  some  tree  cut  down  by  himself — this  peasant 
looked  like  the  fifteenth  century  personified  at  work  in 
the  early  dawn  of  the  twentieth  century. 

But  these  are  only  the  remains  of  the  ancient  conditions 
that  are  passing  away  even  more  rapidly  than  any 
rational  thinker  might  have  expected ;  for  it  is  not  good 
sense  to  expect  that  the  conditions  of  ages  are  to  be 
transformed  in  a  day,  a  year,  or  a  generation.  Nature 
works  slowly  in  all  of  her  processes;  and  she  works  just 
as  leisurely  in  transforming  the  soul  of  man  as  in  modify- 
ing vegetation.  So  many  people  expect  things  to  occur 
instantly.  Time,  which  is  the  great  factor  in  all  human 
development,  is  so  seldom  taken  into  account.  And 
when  you  do  take  time  into  account,  and  also  take  into 
account  that  past  out  of  which  present  conditions  grew, 
the  sane  observer  of  the  Russian  industrial  situation  in 
the  country  districts  must  admit  that  real,  substantial, 
and,  historically  speaking,  even  rapid  progress  is  being 
made. 

"No  one  need  talk  to  me  about  Russian  popular  prog- 

353 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

ress,"  said  a  young  American  gentleman  who  last  year 
made  a  journey  through  the  empire  from  the  Geiman 
frontier  to  the  shores  of  the  Yellow  Sea. 

"The  Russian  peasant,"  continued  he,  "has  not  the 
faintest  conception  of  what  manhood  means.  For  ex- 
ample, we  were  going  along  a  country -road  in  our  carriage, 
which  was  not  at  all  ostentatious.  We  passed  some  mou- 
jiks.  Off  went  every  cap,  and  bowed  in  shameful  obse- 
quiousness was  every  head.  It  was  both  disgusting  and 
pitiful." 

This  young  American  gentleman,  a  graduate  of  Yale,  a 
man  of  wide  travel  and  exceptional  culture,  was  unable  to 
see  anything  in  this  but  the  slavishness  of  soul  of  the  Rus- 
sian peasant;  and  this  was  to  him  a  confirmation  of  his 
preconceived  belief  that  the  oppressions  of  the  govern- 
ment have  extinguished  every  spark  of  self-respect  in  the 
Russian  people,  and  carefully  kept  it  from  being  rekin- 
dled. Yet  his  interpretation  of  what  he  saw,  and  on 
which  he  based  his  reasoning,  was  wide  of  the  mark ;  for 
this  apparent  humility  was  in  large  measure  the  Russian 
peasant's  method  of  being  polite.  The  obsequiousness 
of  it  was  due  to  the  custom  established  when  these 
peasants  or  their  fathers  were  slaves,  and  when  that 
method  of  salute  had  for  generations  been  a  custom;  and 
once  a  custom  among  the  Russians,  always  a  custom. 

Formerly  anybody  who  rode  in  a  carriage  was  cer- 
tainly a  landed  proprietor,  and,  therefore,  a  noble  and  an 
owner  of  serfs.  So  now  he  who  rides  in  a  carriage  must 
certainly  be  a  person  of  consequence,  to  whom  defer- 
ence is  due  merely  as  a  matter  of  politeness.  Also,  the 
Oriental  strain  in  the  Russian  blood  must  be  taken  into 
account.  And  every  one  knows  that  the  Oriental  will  go 
through  profound  prostrations  and  a  magnificent  elo- 
quence of  gladness  on  greeting  a  superior,  which  do  not 
mean  anything  more  than  the  casual  nod  of  the  head, 
shake  of  the  hand,  or  our  "how  do  you  do?"  means 
among  ourselves.    So  the  exaggerated  deference  which  the 

334 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Russian  peasant  pays  to  any  one  who  seems  to  be  a  per- 
son of  consequence  must  not  be  mistaken  for  any  lack  of 
personal  independence. 

Of  this  independence,  a  story  which  you  will  hear  over 
and  over  again  in  Russia  is  an  excellent  illustration.  It 
is  said  that,  at  the  exact  hour  when  the  peasants  under- 
stood that  their  emancipation  would  be  proclaimed,  a  cer- 
tain noble  was  travelling  in  his  carriage  with  coachman, 
footman,  and  other  servants.  Also,  he  was  a  man  par- 
ticularly beloved  by  his  serfs.  At  midnight  of  the  day 
of  emancipation  his  vehicle  was  in  the  thick  of  a  forest 
through  which  the  road  passed.  When  the  serfs  were 
quite  sure  that  it  was  an  hour  past  the  time  of  their 
promised  liberation,  the  horses  were  stopped  and  the 
coachman,  footman,  and  all  the  rest  of  them  came  cour- 
teously to  the  door,  cap  in  hand,  and,  profoundly  bowing, 
wished  their  former  master  good-night;  and,  in  spite  of 
his  expostulations,  threats,  and  pleadings,  they  left  him. 
They  did  this,  so  it  is  said,  to  show  him  that  he  no  longer 
owned  them.  They  meant  to  demonstrate  that  they 
were  freemen. 

Of  course  this  story,  which  is  so  well  embedded  in  cur- 
rent Russian  anecdote  that  it  is  almost  folk-lore  now,  is 
entirely  untrue;  for  the  kindhness  and  consideration  of 
the  Russian  nature  would  never  permit  the  peasants  to 
do  such  a  thing.  But  there  is  absolutely  no  doubt  that 
many  thousands  of  incidents  showing  the  peasants'  per- 
sonal independence  did  occur. 

With  all  of  the  immediate  apparent  ill  effects  of  the 
emancipation  (which  are  here  recited  to  correct  any  mis- 
apprehension of  the  character  of  the  Russian  peasant), 
the  permanent  and  hopeful  results  are  even  now  beginning 
to  appear.  In  comparison  with  the  American  farmer,  the 
inteUigence  of  the  Russian  farmer  is  very  low;  but  in  com- 
parison with  what  you  are  told  of  the  density  of  the  Rus- 
sian serf  of  less  than  half  a  century  ago,  the  intelligence  of 
the  Russian  farmer  of  to-day  is  credible.     In  compari- 

335 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

son  with  the  wide-awakeness  of  the  American,  the  alert- 
ness of  the  Russian  is  somnolent;  but,  in  comparison 
with  his  former  blindness  as  a  serf,  his  eyes  are  now  fairly 
opened. 

Slowly  but  surely  he  is  coming  to  an  understanding  of 
the  meaning  of  his  independence,  the  rights  of  property, 
the  commercial  value  of  truth,  the  good  effects  of  per- 
sonal industry,  the  happy  consequences  of  applying  new 
methods  in  his  work,  the  sure  results  of  economy — in 
short,  all  of  the  lessons  which  personal  industrial  liberty 
teaches  human  nature  anywhere  are  being  learned  by 
the  Russian  peasant.  And  so  it  is  that  the  common 
man  is  appearing  in  the  modem  Russian;  the  serf  is 
developing  into  self-mastery;  the  Russian  peasant,  who 
is  the  Russian  nation,  is  gradually  evolving  into  a  knowl- 
edge of  his  own  powers  through  the  exercise  of  his  own 
industrial  liberty  given  him  by  the  Czar  at  the  expense 
of  the  Russian  nobility. 

And  while  this  Russian  peasant,  who  was  but  yesterday 
a  slave,  is  thus  slowly  becoming  a  man,  with  all  that  man- 
hood means,  his  loyalty  to  his  Czar  is  taking  deeper  and 
deeper  root.  But  while  this  evolution  is  in  progress,  his 
racial  instinct  to  dwell  and  labor  in  socialistic  communities 
has  not  perceptibly  abated.  He  still  continues  to.be  the 
social  being  as  opposed  to  the  individual  being.  He  is 
willing  to  undertake  any  enterprise,  perform  any  labor, 
brave  any  danger  in  company  with  his  fellows;  but  he 
is  not  yet  willing  to  go  it  alone.  And  no  student  or 
observer  of  Russian  character  with  whom  the  writer  ever 
talked  believes  that  the  time  will  ever  come  when  the 
Russian  people  will  ever  proceed  upon  anything  but 
communistic  lines  either  in  their  social  living  or  in  their 
industrial  efforts. 

Here,  then,  is  the  Russian  man,  the  Russian  nation, 
with  whom  the  world  must  deal.  Here  is  the  man  who  is 
planting  replicas  of  the  ancient  Muscovite  community 
over  the  agricultural  portions  of  Siberia  and  making  of 

336 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

that  imperial  domain  another  Russia.  Here  is  the  man 
who,  floating  down  the  Amur  on  his  raft,  or  toihng  east- 
ward with  his  impossible  wagon,  or  even  travelling  tow- 
ards the  rising  sun  on  foot,  or  going  by  companies  of 
hundreds  and  thousands  on  his  world  railway,  is  indolent- 
ly launching  himself  on  Manchuria  and  the  Far  East. 

This  is  the  man  who  has  arrived  at  the  Pacific  and  looks 
with  dreamy  eyes  upon  the  world's  waters  towards  which 
he  has  instinctively  been  pushing  for  hundreds  of  years. 
And,  finally,  here  is  the  man  whom  we  Americans  must 
study  and  consider,  if  we  expect  our  foreign  statesman- 
ship, wherever  it  touches  Russia,  to  be  intelligent  and 
therefore  wise.  And  remember,  too,  that  he  is  yet  a  man 
in  the  making.  The  Great  Moulder  of  all  human  agencies 
is  not  yet  done  with  his  fashioning  of  this  Russian  man  of 
the  future.  But  we  may  even  now  see  some  of  the  out- 
Hnes  of  His  large  handiwork.  We  behold  this  human  be- 
ing, about  whom  all  the  world  is  talking,  humorous,  pa- 
tient, obedient,  with  brain  and  nerves  and  heart  stored 
with  the  sleepy  energies  of  centuries  of  stolid  living;  for 
Russian  energy  is  a  field  long  fallow,  in  which,  neverthe- 
less, the  first  furrow  has  already  been  turned. 


XXIII 

HOLY    RUSSIA,  THE    ORTHODOX    NATION 

YOU  may  know  all  about  the  industrial  and  social  life 
of  the  Russian  peasant — you  may  know  how  he  works 
and  how  he  lives;  but  you  know  nothing  about  him,  after 
all,  unless  you  know  the  religious  side  of  him,  and  the  relig- 
ious side  of  him  is  all  sides  of  him.  It  has  been  noted  that 
he  is  a  social  being,  as  distinguished  from  an  individual 
being.  And  he  is  even  more  of  a  rehgious  being  than  he 
is  a  communistic  being.  "Faith,"  said  a  Russian  friend, 
"is  as  necessary  to  the  Russian  peasant  as  food  or  air," 
That  we  may  make  a  little  more  definite  what  must  at  best 
be  our  vague  understanding  of  this  human  force  which  is 
now  taking  the  attention  of  the  world,  and  with  whom 
all  nations  must  deal  in  the  future,  let  us  observe  the 
Russian  people  from  the  religious  point  of  view. 

The  icon  is  a  little  picture  or  image  of  the  Saviour,  the 
Virgin,  or  of  some  Russian  saint. 

In  the  telegraph-office  on  the  Amur  hangs  the  icon;  in 
the  private  office  of  the  Minister  of  Finance  at  St.  Peters- 
burg hangs  the  icon;  in  the  peasant  cottage,  far  out  on 
the  plains  of  Russia,  hangs  the  icon;  in  the  saloon  and  in 
almost  every  room  in  the  passenger-boat  on  the  Volga 
hangs  the  icon;  in  the  head  offices  of  the  great  manu- 
facturing establishments  you  will  find  the  icon;  in  the 
palatial  homes  of  lordly  wealth,  the  icon;  in  vodka  shops 
again  the  icon;  in  the  basest  places  of  sin,  still  the  icon. 

Always  and  everywhere  in  Russia  is  this  holy  present- 
ment. It  is  the  outward  and  visible  emblem  of  a  religious 
feeling  instinctive,  profound,  racial — a  religious  feeling, 

338 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

more  than  the  intelligent  idea  of  any  concrete  faith.  And 
be  sure  that  it  is  a  feeling  really  religious,  and  not,  as 
almost  every  traveller  will  at  first  assert,  merely  super- 
stitious. Not  that  the  Slav  is  not  superstitious.  He  is 
superstitious,  but  he  is  genuinely  religious  too.  These 
sacred  images,  in  one  form  or  another,  are  frequent  in 
the  streets  of  the  great  cities.  It  is  profitable  to  stroll 
quietly  down  any  thoroughfare  of  the  Russian  capital. 
Devote  several  of  these  strolls  exclusively  to  observation 
of  the  people's  manifestations  of  adoration.  To  be  sure 
that  the  practices  you  will  observe  are  habitual,  take  a 
week-day  instead  of  a  Sunday. 

There  is  an  icon  on  the  other  side  of  the  street.  Observe 
the  poor  and  humble  moujik  as  he  passes  it.  Off  goes  his 
cap;  his  body  reverentially  bows;  his  lips  move,  appar- 
ently in  the  recitation  of  a  brief  formula  of  prayer;  mean- 
while he  makes  with  his  hand  the  Russian  sign  of  the 
cross.  This  sign  of  the  cross  is  unlike  the  briefer  Roman 
Catholic  observance.  The  forehead  is  touched  where 
rested  the  crown  of  thorns,  the  side  is  touched  where 
entered  the  cruel  spear,  and  other  motions  make  it  a 
condensed  reproduction  of  the  Saviour's  crucifixion  on 
Calvary,  quickly  done  and  yet  comprehensive.  On  goes 
the  moujik.  Here  now  comes  a  merchant.  Clearly,  this 
man  is  well-to-do.  His  comparatively  rich  clothing  in- 
dicates that.  He  will  pass  it.  He  has  been  "emanci- 
pated" from  the  custom  which  the  moujik's  "ignorance" 
and  ' '  superstition  "  and  all  that  compel  him  yet  to  perform. 
But  off  goes  the  merchant's  cap,  too,  and  he  does  exactly 
as  did  the  moujik.  A  woman  of  good  condition  comes 
along.  Her  reverence  is  even  deeper.  The  clatter  of 
horses'  hoofs  is  heard.  A  carriage  comes,  bearing  an 
officer.  He  is  a  man  of  high  rank,  too.  You  have 
learned  that  from  the  uniform.  He  must  be  going  to 
an  audience  of  some  kind  or  other,  for  he  wears  certain 
orders,  which  his  unbuttoned  great  military  overcoat, 
flying  back,  reveals  on  his  breast.     Surely  this  miHtary 

339 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

commander  of  the  forces  of  that  autocrat  who  is  also  the 
head  of  the  Church  (not  theoretically,  but  in  the  people's 
mind)  will  not  observe  this  "nonsense."  Besides,  he  is  go- 
ing too  fast.  But  with  hardly  slackening  speed  the  officer 
and  his  coachman  alike  perform  precisely  the  poor 
moujik's  obeisance,  mutter  apparently  the  same  reverent 
words,  make  precisely  the  same  holy  sign.  Clearly,  this 
observance  is  mortised  very  firmly  into  the  external  hab- 
its of  the  Russian  people. 

Go  to  Moscow  now.  There  you  will  find  the  same 
practice,  if  anything  intensified.  Now  travel  into  the 
country  districts.  Here  is  not  the  slightest  difference 
between  what  you  observed  upon  the  street  in  St.  Peters- 
burg, unless,  indeed,  you  feel  as  you  watch  that  there  is 
a  deeper  fervor  on  the  part  of  the  adorers  of  Him  of  the 
thorn-crowned  head,  who,  after  all,  is,  in  the  hearts  and 
minds  of  the  Russian  people,  the  real  prince  and  lord  of 
them  all;  for  in  the  Russian  mind  the  Saviour  is  their 
real  ruler  and  protector;  and  in  the  common  thought,  the 
popular  belief,  the  people's  conviction  (however,  not,  of 
course,  in  the  theory  of  the  Church  itself),  the  Czar  is 
His  personal  representative  on  earth.  To  this  may  be 
traced  a  large  part  (and  many  versed  in  Russian  life 
assert  by  far  the  larger  part)  of  the  profound  hold  which 
the  Czar  has  on  the  loyalty  of  the  Russian  millions — a 
loyalty  not  understood,  and  perhaps  not  to  be  understood, 
by  Americans  or  non-Russian  Europeans. 

"I-con,"  said  a  successful  and  typical  American  biisi- 
ness  man  of  large  affairs,  with  whom  the  writer  spent 
several  days,  "it  is  a  good  name.  This  whole  thing  is  a 
big  confidence  game.  These  priests  rob  the  people.  Look 
at  the  treasures  of  jewels  and  gold  heaped  up  in  their 
churches,  and  all  that.  They  take  it  from  the  people. 
Do  not  tell  me  that  these  priests  do  not  know  better.  Do 
not  tell  me  that  this  government  is  not  simply  play- 
ing on  the  superstitions  of  the  masses.  I  tell  you,  the 
whole  thing,  the  Church  and  the  government,  too,  is 

340 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  greatest  confidence  game  ever  played  upon  a  peo- 
ple." 

"Is  it  not  unbearable,"  said  a  cultivated  English  lady, 
who,  however,  herself  was  a  High  Church  woman — "is  it 
not  unbearable,"  said  she,  "all  of  this  miserable  super- 
stition?" 

These  two  views  fairly  well  represent  the  common  opin- 
ion of  the  American,  English,  German,  or  French  traveller 
through  Russia.  The  writer  is  compelled  to  believe  that 
such  views  are  widely  inaccurate.  Superstition  there 
undoubtedly  is  in  Russia,  perhaps  more  so  than  in  any 
other  Christian  country,  but  religion  there  is,  too;  and 
there  is  more  of  the  genuinely  religious  aspiration,  of  the 
pure  Christian  spirit,  of  worship,  in  short,  in  what  to 
some  travellers  is  "mummery,"  in  the  habitual  religious 
practices  of  the  Russian  people  than  there  is  of  super- 
stition. 

In  a  magnificent  cathedral  of  St. Petersburg  two  Amer- 
icans stood  uncovered,  observing  the  beauty  of  the 
pictured  works  of  art,  uplifted  by  the  majesty  of  the 
architecture,  humbled,  as  every  sensitive  mind  must  be, 
by  that  strange  feeling  of  reverence  that  comes  into  the 
consciousness  of  every  one  of  us  w^hen  standing  under  the 
arches  of  any  noble  religious  edifice  or  in  the  presence  of 
the  sublime  lift  of  a  mighty  mountain,  or  on  shipboard 
in  the  middle  of  the  ocean  at  starry  and  moonless  mid- 
night. An  occasional  worshipper  entered.  Here  was 
only  a  poorly  dressed  child  of  the  people.  Straightway 
she  went  to  the  life-size  sacred  picture,  and,  kneel- 
ing, kissed  its  feet.  After  a  while  came  another,  appar- 
ently a  woman  of  wealth  and  rank,  for  she  was  richly  and 
daintily  attired,  and  bore  in  her  demeanor  evidence  of 
training  and  culture.     And  she  also  did  the  like. 

"Do  these  people  really  believe  and  feel  anything  of  a 
religious  nature  when  they  do  all  these  things?"  asked  the 
visitor  of  a  Russian  gentleman,  educated  out  of  Russia, 
and  of  learning  and  travel  not  surpassed  by  any  president 

341 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

or  professor  of  any  American  college  or  university-  He 
was  himself  a  dissenter  from  the  Russian  Greek  Orthodox 
Church  on  its  religious  side,  but  a  stanch  adherent  of 
it  on  its  national  side  (for  you  must  know,  as  will  be 
pointed  out  later,  that  the  Russian  Church  is  first  a  relig- 
ious institution,  and,  second,  a  patriotic  organization;  and 
the  paradox  is  quite  common  of  a  man  or  of  a  woman  who 
will  tell  you  they  reject  the  Church  on  its  religious  side, 
and  yet  who  are  hot  adherents  of  the  Church  because  it 
represents  the  nation  more  even  than  the  government 
does,  and  is  by  far  the  most  powerful  influence  in  unifying 
the  Russian  people).  And  precisely  this  question  is  the 
first  one  asked  by  any  American  or  non-Russian  European 
when  told  of  these  devotional  exercises  habitually  in  use 
among  all  of  the  people  throughout  all  the  dominions  of 
the  Czar. 

"Yes, indeed,"  answered  this  cosmopolitan  Russian;  "I 
know  what  you  are  thinking.  You  are  thinking  that  this 
is  mere  form  on  the  part  of  these  people.  You  are  think- 
ing that  at  the  very  moment  when  they  are  apparently 
mentally  and  spiritually  prostrating  themselves  before  an 
icon,  their  minds  are,  in  reality,  intent  on  their  business  or 
their  work  or  their  intrigues.  You  could  make  no  greater 
mistake.  I,  who,  as  you  know,  am  not  impressed  at  all 
by  this  sort  of  thing,  tell  you  that  nine  hundred  and  nine- 
ty-nine out  of  every  one  thousand  of  our  people  are  real- 
ly, truly,  deeply,  reverently  religious.  They  mean  every 
item  and  particular  of  what  their  action  implies.  They 
believe  fervently,  unquestionably,  devoutly.  It  is  not  a 
matter  of  mental  process  with  them  at  all.  They  make 
no  argument  about  it.  With  them  God  is  a  fact — the 
greatest  fact  in  the  universe.  To  them  the  Saviour  is  His 
only  begotten  Son.  There  is  some  superstition  in  it,  of 
course;  but,  taking  all  that  into  account,  there  is  more 
genuine  religion  in  it  than  there  is  among  any  people  whom, 
in  all  my  travels  around  the  world,  I  have  observed." 

This  information  was  tested  in  many  ways — by  similar 

342 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

questions  to  men  of  different  opinions,  occupations,  and 
stations  in  life;  by  careful  scrutiny  of  these  customs  in 
their  various  forms,  in  points  of  the  empire  thousands 
of  miles  apart — and  the  conclusion  was  forced,  by  these 
various  lines  of  inquiry,  that  the  interpretation  given 
in  the  conversation  above  quoted  is  far  nearer  the  truth 
than  the  bitter  sarcasm  of  the  American  business -man 
and  the  English  lady  of  culture  above  quoted. 

That  there  is  superstition  mingled  in  all  this  reverence 
is  believed  to  be  undoubtedly  true.  Not  only  are  the 
obeisance,  the  murmur  of  prayer,  the  sign  of  the  cross 
physical  manifestations  of  the  religious  feeling  of  the 
men  and  women  who  perfoim  them;  with  most  of  them 
they  are  also  a  sort  of  incantation,  a  kind  of  fonnula  of 
motion  and  words  directed  against  the  evil  eye  and  the 
unseen  powers  of  darkness,  which,  to  the  Russian  mind, 
are  in  the  air  about  us.  The  average  Russian  would 
probably  ascribe  any  ill-luck  which  might  chance  upon 
him  to  his  failure  to  observe  these  reverential  practices. 

"Yes,"  said  a  highly  educated  Russian,  "the  truth  is 
that  even  the  best  of  us  feel  that  there  are  unseen  powers 
to  be  propitiated;  but,  speaking  for  myself  and  what  I 
feel  to  be  an  intimate  knowledge  of  our  own  people,  I 
oeg  you  to  believe  that  most  of  this  is  serious,  earnest 
worship." 

Friends  were  driving  in  the  national  Russian  vehicle, 
the  troika  (a  carriage  with  three  horses,  with  which 
everybody  who  has  seen  any  picture  of  any  kind  rep- 
resenting Russian  life  is  familiar),  across  the  seemingly 
limitless  plains  of  agricultural  Russia.  It  was  not  one 
hundred  miles  from  Moscow.  It  was  ancient  land  there- 
fore. 

"This  column  of  trees,"  said  the  Russian  gentleman, 
"was  planted  by  the  great  Catharine."  He  referred  to 
an  avenue  of  fine  elms  enclosing  the  roadway  on  either 
side  for  many  versts.  "I  have  forgotten,"  said  he,  "what 
caprice  was  in  her  mind  when  she  did  this,  but  we  are 

343 


THE    RUvSSIAN    ADVANCE 

much  obliged  to  her  for  it.  You  see  what  a  beautiful 
variation  it  makes  in  the  monotony  of  this  journey." 

"But  what  can  this  be?"  said  the  American,  pointing 
ahead.  Up  the  road,  half  a  mile  away,  a  banner  was 
seen  advancing,  followed  by  what,  at  a  distance,  appeared 
to  be  a  column  of  people. 

"You  are  in  luck,"  responded  the  Russian  friend.  "We 
will  drive  to  the  side  of  the  road  and  wait.  This  partic- 
ular thing  is  a  ceremony  that  you  might  have  stayed  a 
year  in  Russia  and  not  witnessed.  If  I  am  not  mistaken, 
it  is  a  religious  procession  of  the  common  people,  praying 
for  rain." 

Sure  enough,  he  was  right.  As  the  strange  company 
approached,  you  could  see  peasant  men  and  women  run- 
ning from  the  fields  to  join  it.  At  its  head  marched  a 
blond,  broad-shouldered  peasant,  perhaps  thirty  years  of 
age.  Bare-headed,  blue-eyed,  ruddy  of  countenance,  fair 
of  brow,  with  long,  yellow  hair,  trousers  in  boots,  he  was 
for  all  the  world  the  ideal  Russian  we  all  have  in  our  im- 
aginations. He  bore  above  him  a  banner,  hanging  from 
a  cross-piece  attached  to  the  staff  which  he  held  m  his 
hand.  This  banner,  to  the  uninstructed  observer,  was 
very  much  like  any  one  that  you  may  see  in  the  procession 
of  some  secret  order  in  this  country.  On  it  was  the  pict- 
ured form  and  features  of  some  Russian  saint.  The  stan- 
dard-bearer's eyes  and  face  were  lifted  towards  the  skies. 
His  lips  moved  in  appeal,  and  behind  him  came  perhaps 
seventy-five  or  one  hundred  peasant  men  and  women, 
their  whole  souls  apparently  intent  on  fervent  prayer. 

"Yes,  I  was  right,"  said  the  Russian  gentleman;  "they 
are  asking  the  heavens  for  rain.  They  believe  they  will 
get  it,  too,  if  they  are  earnest  enough  in  asking  for  it,  and 
sincere  enough  in  repenting  for  their  sins  or  the  sins  of 
somebody  or  other  v/ho  brought  the  catastrophe  of  this 
drought  upon  us  in  this  part  of  Russia." 

"I  am  glad  you  saw  that,"  remarked  a  Russian  in- 
terested in  Church  affairs.     "It  illustrates  the  character 

.344 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

of  our  people,  and  the  great  task  the  Clnirch  has  on  hand, 
after  all — a  task  which  you  Americans  do  not  understand, 
and,  perhaps,  cannot  understand.  The  ancestors  of  all 
of  our  people  were  pagan,  as  you,  of  cot^Tse,  know.  Only  a 
few  years  ago  the  great  majority  of  them  were  serfs. 
Then,  too,  please  remember,  we  are  all  Slavs.  It  is  in  our 
blood  to  believe  in  something.  So  you  will  find  that  a 
great  many  of  the  Russian  superstitions,  centuries  old,  and 
having  their  roots  far  back  yonder  in  pagan  times,  still 
exist,  only  Christianized  in  form,  if  you  will  permit  the  ex- 
pression. It  is  no  easy  thing  to  stamp  them  out.  They 
must  be  taken  into  serious  account. 

"So  you  will  observe  that  from  a  religious  point  of  view 
the  great  duty,  the  vast  work  of  the  Russian  Church  is 
to  instruct  these  people  in  the  simple  tenets  of  right 
and  wrong — in  the  fundamentals  of  faith  in  God  and 
Christ  and  personal  immortality.  Thus,  slowly,  very 
slowly,  paganism's  superstitions,  imparted  from  remote 
antiquity,  are  being  extinguished;  but  to  violently  try 
to  cast  them  out  suddenly  would  be  worse  than  useless, 
for  such  a  process,  even  if  successfitl,  would  tear  growing 
Christian  faith  as  well  as  declining  pagan  superstition  out 
together  at  the  same  time.  It  would  be  a  realization  of 
the  injunction  against  too  violently  pulling  up  the  tares 
— 'Nay,  lest  while  ye  gather  up  the  tares,  ye  root  up  also 
the  wheat  with  them.'" 

And  the  more  you  look  into  this  side  of  Russian  char- 
acter, the  more  you  will  see  in  this  comment.  The  Rus- 
sian people  believe,  without  any  qualification,  in  a  per- 
sonal God.  The  Russian  peasants  have  no  more  ques- 
tion about  that  than  they  have  about  the  existence  of  the 
soil  they  till,  of  the  air  they  breathe,  or  any  material  form 
with  which  they  come  in  contact.  As  has  been  said,  they 
also  believe  in  Christ  as  His  only  begotten  Son,  and  in  im- 
mortality, and  in  the  power  of  heaven  saints.  Indeed, 
Christianity  made  conquest  of  the  Russian  people  with 
greater  ease  than  it  overcame  the  paganism  of  Germany, 

345 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Scandinavia,  or  any  other  country.  There  was  some- 
thing about  the  sweetness,  charity,  and  humility  of  the 
Christian  faith  that  instinctively  appealed  to  the  »Slav; 
for,  whatever  may  be  said  to  the  contrary,  the  truth  is 
that  the  Slav  is,  by  nature,  humble,  sweet-hearted,  char- 
itable.^ 

But,  nevertheless,  the  very  ease  with  which  Christianity 
established  its  dominion  over  the  Russian  nature  left 
remaining  many  of  the  old  pagan  observances,  and  so 
you  see,  side  by  side  with  what   your  eyes  and  ears 

*  A  Danish  gentleman  of  some  twenty  years  experience  with  the 
Russians  was  asked  what  he  considered  their  chief  characteristic. 
He  quickly  answered,  "Oh,  undoubtedly  the  principal  element 
of  Russian  character  is  kindliness."  The  same  question  was 
put  to  a  German  of  large  aflfairs,  very  great  familiarity  with  the 
Russian  people,  and  of  undoubted  probity  of  character.  After 
thinking  for  some  time  he  replied,  "It  is  hard  to  say  that  one 
characteristic  is  more  pronounced  than  another;  and  yet  if  the 
most  prominent  trait  of  the  Russian  had  to  be  selected  I  am  sure 
that  all  who  know  him  would  say  that  it  is  his  desire  to  please 
others."  Again,  the  French  consul  at  a  certain  port,  who  has 
lived  in  Russia  many  years,  was  requested  to  give  his  opinion.  He 
responded,  as  promptly  as  the  Dane,  that,  "Certainly  the  dis- 
tinguishing feature  of  Russian  character  is  the  wish  not  to  offend 
— the  pleasure  the  Russian  takes  in  obliging  others." 

These  are  samples  from  notes  of  several  score  of  like  expressions 
from  men  whose  intercourse  with  and  knowledge  of  the  Russian 
people  qualify  them  to  speak  with  authority.  Even  the  young 
American  Russophobist  elsewhere  quoted  said  in  the  same  con- 
versation, "I  will  admit  that  the  Russian  has  charm.  Much  as  I 
hate  the  Russians,  that  quality  of  their  character  is  undeniable." 

No  contrary  view  was  heard  in  numerous  conversations  in 
many  different  parts  of  the  empire  and  in  several  different  coun- 
tries. 

Yet  this  estimate  of  Russian  character  sharply  conflicts  with 
those  violent  outbursts  of  peasant  ferocity  of  which  the  world 
hears  occasional  accounts.  The  writer's  personal  observations 
confirm  the  judgment  of  the  competent  witnesses  above  quoted; 
and  this,  too,  is  the  conclusion  of  the  most  careful  students.  Still 
the  instances  of  popular  frenzies  of  cruelty  are  authentic.  Again, 
therefore,  we  face  that  familiar  thing  in  Russia,  elsewhere  noted, 
the  paradox. 

346 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

compel  you  to  believe  to  be  genuine  devotion  to  the 
highest  religious  ideals  and  a  pure  and  lofty  faith,  very 
simple,  childlike,  absurd  superstition. 

Let  him  who  doubts  the  intense  devotion  of  the  Russian 
mind  attend  the  services  of  the  Orthodox  Greek  Church. 
Any  church  will  do,  and  any  service  will  do,  but  preferably 
take  some  notable  cathedral  beloved  of  and  frequent- 
ed by  the  people.  If  possible,  let  him  attend  upon  the 
day  of  some  Christian  celebration.  Of  all  the  churches 
of  the  empire,  let  the  traveller,  if  he  can,  choose  the  cathe- 
dral in  the  Kremlin  at  Moscow.  Before  the  altar  all  peo- 
ple, in  the  opinion  of  the  Russians,  are  one.  The  noble, 
the  peasant,  the  millionaire,  the  pauper,  the  native,  the 
foreigner — there  is  no  distinction  on  account  of  any  hu- 
man conditions.  All  are  human  souls,  all  worshippers  of 
the  one  and  only  most  high  God. 

So  you  have  difficulty  in  entrance  only  because  the 
great  audience-chamber  is  already  packed  with  worship- 
pers. There  are  no  seats.  No  grave  usher  directs  you  to 
a  decent  pew.  You  must  stand.  And  here  the  people 
stood — the  Russian  people  in  miniature — a  tiny  atom, 
but  reproducing,  in  every  detail,  the  vast  empire  made  up 
of  millions  of  similar  atoms.  Here  are  working-men  and 
working- women.  Here  are  richly  dressed,  highly  edu- 
cated ladies,  leaders  of  society.  Here  are  small  trades- 
men, and  by  their  side  great  manufacturers.  Here  are 
officers,  and  beside  them,  or  perhaps  in  front  of  them,  for 
that  matter,  common  soldiers.  There  stands  a  Russian 
nobUman  who  still  holds  vast  estates  and  bears  one  of  the 
ancient  names  of  the  empire,  and  by  his  side  stands  a  cab- 
driver. 

And  this  historic  chamber,  too,  is  the  spot  where,  for 
hundreds  of  years,  the  Czars  of  Russia  have  been  crowned. 
A  Uttle  back  of  the  centre  is  a  small,  raised  dais,  or  plat- 
form, perhaps  a  foot  in  height,  where  the  Czar  and  Czarina 
t?^ke  their  places  during  the  coronation  ceremonies.  Yet 
the  people  stood  on  it,  too.     The  writer  found  himself 

347 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

crowded,  by  the  movement  of  the  throng,  close  to  this 
spot.  Immediately  before  him  stood  a  young  working- 
man  from  the  country.  He  might  have  been  the  twin 
brother  of  the  peasant  who  bore  the  banner  in  the  pro- 
cession praying  for  rain,  above  described.  As  the  ser- 
vice proceeded,  time  and  again  he  would  sink  to  his  knees 
and  bend  his  forehead  to  the  floor.  Instinctively  the 
crowd  made  room  for  these  fervent  prostrations  which 
here  and  there  all  over  the  church  were  taking  place. 
Otherwise,  they  excited  no  curiosity.  Evidently  the  mind 
of  every  auditor  was  doing  the  same  thing.  Everywhere 
all  eyes  were  intent  on  the  altar  and  the  priest.  From 
their  faces  shone  the  fervor  of  a  faith  which  you  may  see 
nowhere  in  America,  except  at  our  occasional  revivals. 
All  heads  frequently  bowed,  and  all  hands  as  often  made 
the  sign  of  the  holy  cross.  The  most  hardened  infidel, 
the  most  blase  man  of  the  world,  the  most  blasphemous 
scoffer  cannot,  on  one  of  these  occasions,  fail  to  feel  an 
atmosphere  of  religious  exaltation.  Prayer,  devotion, 
adoration  are  in  the  air. 

Prayer,  devotion,  adoration,  exaltation  are  in  the  ser- 
vice, too.     The  singing  especially  is  rich  and  sweet. 

"You  must  not  fail,"  said  an  American  friend  in  Paris, 
"to  hear  the  singing  on  some  notable  occasion  in  one  of 
the  great  Russian  cathedrals.  Until  you  have  heard  that, 
you  have  never  heard  religious  music."  And  in  that  he 
was  quite  right.  Whatever  else  you  miss  in  Russia,  do 
not  fail  to  hear  the  vocal  music  of  religious  Russia.  It  is 
futile  to  attempt  to  describe  it,  except,  perhaps,  to  note 
the  luxuriant  wealth  of  the  bass  voices. 

"You  know,"  said  a  Russian  lady,  "that  we  are  so  vain 
and  provincial  as  to  think  that  there  is  no  bass-singing  in 
the  world  except  in  our  cathedrals." 

The  statement  is  made  that  the  priests  who  conduct 
the  services  in  Russian  cathedrals  are  selected  always  with 
a  view  to  the  depth  and  richness  of  their  voices.  One 
would  be  compelled  to  believe  it  from  the  service  here 

348 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

poorly  described.  Deep,  sonorous,  mellow,  without  effort, 
the  voice  of  the  priest  was  the  sound  of  virile,  unex- 
hausted, elemental  vocalinity  itself,  suppressed,  purified, 
beautified  by  devotion  and  lofty  spiritual  feeling. 

You  may  go  when  you  Hke,  but  do  not  go  until,  after  a 
brief  space,  the  doors  behind  the  altar  open  and  you  look 
into  a  distant  room,  golden  with  holy  religious  emblems 
(which,  of  course,  you  will  not  understand),  and  mysteri- 
ous with  gray-haired  priests  and  swinging  censers,  and 
the  rising  smoke  of  incense.  Indeed,  stay  through  it  all, 
from  beginning  to  end.  It  is  something  you  will  never 
forget,  and  something  which  will  interpret  "  Holy  Russia" 
to  you  as  nothing  else  can  possibly  do.  And  when  you 
go  away,  you  go  enriched  with  a  consciousness  that, 
granting  all  that  is  said  of  their  superstition,  there  is  a 
depth  and  breadth  of  religious  life  in  Russia  as  pure  and 
lofty  as  the  world  has  seen  since  the  Master  lived  and 
taught,  and,  for  the  sins  of  mankind,  on  Calvary  died. 
You  may  try  to  reason  yourself  out  of  it;  you  may  debate 
with  this  one  or  that  one,  but  you  will  come  into  posses- 
sion of  an  internal  and  personal  knowledge  of  that  subject 
which  no  debating  or  arguing  or  reasoning  can  shake, 
much  less  overthrow. 

Indeed,  all  the  writers  v/ho  have  with  intelligent  and 
sympathetic  insight  looked  into  Russian  character  have 
admitted  in  the  last  analysis  that  it  is  saturated  with 
a  pure  religion  and  uplifted  by  a  sincere  faith.  No 
analysis  of  the  growth  of  Christianity  in  Russia  is  here 
attempted,  of  course,  nor  is  any  account  of  the  doctrines 
and  constitution  of  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church  assumed 
to  be  set  forth.  AH  that  is  here  attempted  is  to  give  a 
faithful  statement  of  things  observed,  and  discriminating 
conversations  throwing  light  upon  them.  It  is  sought 
simply  to  place  a  picture  as  accurate  as  may  be  of  the 
various  things  which  an  impartial  traveller  is  compelled 
to  note  in  this  interesting  land,  with  some  of  the  more 
obvious  reasons  of  things  seen  and  heard. 

349 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Nothing  written  about  Russia  is  worth  while  which 
leaves  out  of  account  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church. 
You  may  describe  the  American  Repubhc,  and  give  a 
very  fair  idea  of  the  hfe  of  the  people,  without  reference 
to  any  particular  Church.  England  may  be  pictured,  and 
not  a  word  written  concerning  even  her  established  re- 
ligious organization,  and  yet  you  can  get  a  very  good 
understanding  of  English  character.  So  with  other  na- 
tions. But  Russia  is  the  only  state  where  nothing  can  be 
understood  without  some  comprehensive  outline  of  the 
part  religion  plays  in  the  life  of  the  people  and  the  affairs 
of  the  government;  for  in  Russia  the  Church  is,  on  the 
one  hand,  a  definite  part  of  the  government  itself;  on  the 
other  hand  it  is  the  chief  factor  in  the  life  of  the  people. 
On  the  one  side  a  state  institution,  on  the  other  side  it 
is  a  popular  institution. 

You  could  make  no  greater  mistake  than  to  assume,  as 
the  casual  traveller  always  does,  that  Russia  is  priest- 
ridden.  It  is  nothing  of  the  kind.  The  Russian  priest 
is  people-ridden.  The  Russian  Church  is  the  people's 
Church.  Very  emphatically,  the  priesthood  is  the  ser- 
vant of  the  masses.  There  is  astonishing  reverence  for 
the  Church  itself  and  for  all  that  it  stands  for:  there  is 
an  intellectual  and  spiritual  regard  for  the  holy  icons, 
amounting  almost  to  idolatry — certainly  to  worship.  As 
has  been  pointed  out,  there  is  the  most  utter,  abandoned, 
and  unquestioning  faith  in  God  and  Christ  and  the  Czar 
(for  the  Czar  is  always  included  in  the  minds  of  the  peas- 
ant, and  the  peasantry  are  the  Russian  people,  with  the 
All  Father  and  with  the  Son  of  Man). 

But  the  priest  exercises  no  such  sovereignty  over  the 
minds  of  his  parishioners.  In  the  opinion  of  the  people, 
the  Church  is  theirs,  the  icons  are  theirs,  Christ  is  theirs, 
Jehovah  is  their  Father,  etc.,  and  the  priest  is  their  ser- 
vant, who  is  supposed  to  attend  to  certain  necessary 
formulas  to  keep  the  great  spiritual  machine  in  motion. 
There  are  two  things  which  even  the  Czar  cannot  do,  and 

35° 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

one  of  these  is  to  disestablish  the  Church.  Even  if  the 
Czar  had  the  legal  power  to  do  so,  he  has  not  the  real 
power.  He  might  as  well  attempt  to  disestablish  the 
Russian  people  themselves.  Indeed,  the  Czar  himself 
must  avow  his  "orthodoxy"  as  a  preliminary  to  his 
crowning. 

Nothing  would  start  a  revolution  in  Russia  more  quick- 
ly than  an  attempt  to  confiscate  the  holy  treasmes,  for 
the  accumulation  of  gold  and  precious  stones,  etc.,  is  the 
property  of  the  icons,  the  holy  images,  whose  residence  is 
in  the  respective  monasteries;  and  these  icons,  in  turn, 
are  the  spiritual  property  of  the  Russian  people.  No 
matter  how  wretchedly  poor  the  moujik  is,  he  derives  ex- 
treme satisfaction  from  contemplating  the  wealth  of  his 
pictured  saints.  Indeed,  it  is  probable  that  the  monas- 
teries of  Russia  would  beccjme  extinct  through  starvation 
were  it  not  for  the  support  they  receive  from  the  people 
themselves.  All  of  the  famous  ones  are  the  centres  of 
enormous  pilgrimages. 

In  July  of  the  present  year  (1903)  the  Associated  Press 
sent  out  a  statement,  printed  in  all  English  and  American 
papers  to  the  effect  that  "the  Czar,  the  Czarina,  and  their 
suite"  had  left  St.  Petersburg  "to  join  the  great  orthodox 
pilgrimage  to  Saroff,  province  of  Tamboff,  where  the 
Orthodox  Church  is  to  celebrate  the  canonization  of  the 
hermit,  Pekhor  Moshnin,  under  the  name  of  St.  Seraphin. 
Six  thousand  bishops  and  clergy  of  European  Russia 
will  participate  in  the  ceremonies." 

This  despatch  of  the  Associated  Press  illustrates  the 
Russian  passion  for  religious  pilgrimages.  It  is  estimated 
that  the  ancient  monastery  at  Kief  is  annually  visited 
by  over  one  million  Russians.  This  million  comes  from 
all  over  the  empire.  The  same  is  true  of  other  ancient 
and  famous  sacred  establishments.  Some  of  these  derive 
an  income  mounting  into  tens  of  millions  of  rubles  a  year 
from  the  voluntary  contributions  of  these  pilgrims.  Bear 
in  mind,  too,  that  the  pilgrims  come  to  them  voluntarily. 

351 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

It  is  quite  a  spontaneous  affair.  There  is  no  encourage- 
ment to  do  this  on  the  part  of  the  government.  Em- 
phatically it  is  not  worked  up  by  the  priests  themselves. 
It  is  a  purely  popular  movement,  and  apparently  as  per- 
manent as  it  is  popular,  for  the  Russian  must  worship 
something.  His  mind  is  chiefly  concerned  with  only 
two  things  —  the  first  one  is  his  physical  livelihood,  his 
food,  and  his  clothing;  the  second  one  is  his  spiritual 
welfare. 

And  this  latter  with  him  is  not  so  much  a  matter  of 
good  deeds  as  it  is  a  question  of  sheer  faith,  of  childlike 
belief.  His  mind  must  attach  itself  to  something  tan- 
gible. It  is  not  true  that  he  has  no  mental  conception 
of  the  Saviour,  of  the  saints,  and  of  their  heavenly  offices, 
for  he  has;  but  it  is  just  as  true  that  it  is  necessary  for 
the  Slav  to  have  some  physical  representation  of  these 
holy  images  which  dwells  in  the  mind.  And  it  is  also  true 
that  to  these  figures  and  paintings  the  Russian  attaches 
something  of  the  feeling  of  reverence  that  he  has  for  the 
divine  personages  and  the  heavenly  ideals  they  are  de- 
signed to  represent. 

Even  this  does  not  put  it  strong  enough.  Some  of  them 
are,  to  the  mind  of  the  Russian  peasant,  actual,  living 
beings,  endov/ed  with  miraculous  powers.  Even  the 
hurried  traveller  who  visits  Moscow  for  onl}^  a  day  is 
sure  to  hear  of  the  miracle-working  Virgin.  This  ancient 
and  sacred  image  has  a  chapel  of  her  own  near  one  of  the 
historic  gates  of  Moscow.  The  sick  visit  her  for  healing, 
and  where  the  afflicted  are  too  ill  to  come  to  her  she  is 
taken  to  them.  Her  revenues  are  very  great.  Neverthe- 
less, let  it  again  be  called  to  mind,  for  it  cannot  be  repeat- 
ed too  many  times,  that  this  peculiar  veneration  of  icons 
is  not  something  trumped  up  by  the  clergy;  the  clergy 
themselves,  as  has  been  stated,  do  not  exercise  any 
particular  awe  or  even  reverence  in  the  Russian  mind. 
Indeed,  it  may  be  said  that,  while  the  Church  is  the  most 
popular  institution  in   Russia,   the  priest   is  the  most 

352 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

unpopular  person  in  the  empire.  And  this  again  brings 
us  face  to  face  with  another  of  those  paradoxes  of  Russian 
character  and  practice,  which  confront  you  on  every 
hand,  in  industry,  in  rehgion,  in  statesmanship — every- 
where excepting  only  in  foreign  policy,  which  is  a  uniform 
plan  of  advance. 


XXIV 

PRIEST,    PEOPLE,    AND    CHURCH 

THE  priesthood  of  the  Russian  Church  is  divided 
into  what  are  populariy  called  the  white  clergy 
and  the  black  clergy.  The  black  clergy  are  monks  who 
are  unmarried.  The  white  clergy,  who  are  the  real 
officiating  priests  in  Russia,  are  all  married,  and  must 
be.  They  cannot  be  priests  otherwise.  If  the  Rus- 
sian has  any  reverence  for  any  priest  it  is  for  a  brother  of 
the  black  clergy.  And  yet  in  all  Russia,  with  her  one  hun- 
dred and  forty  millions  of  people,  there  are  not  twelve 
thousand  monks  all  told,  including  the  novitiates  or  appli- 
cants for  this  sombre  branch  of  the  Church.  Also,  it  is 
true  that  the  black  clergy  is  slowly  dying  out ;  its  mem- 
bers have,  for  scores  of  years,  been  diminishing,  and  are 
decreasing  now.  On  the  other  hand,  few  as  they  are  in 
number,  they  are  by  far  the  most  important  factor  in  the 
administration  of  this  great  national  church  organization. 
But,  in  spite  of  their  power,  in  spite  of  the  hold  they  have 
on  the  popular  imagination,  as  keepers  of  the  holy 
images,  in  spite  of  the  prestige  which  is  theirs  as  the 
inheritors  of  an  illustrious  ecclesiastical  past,  it  appears 
that  ultimately  they  are  doomed  to  extinction  merely 
by  lack  of  recruits.  It  is  futile  to  attempt  to  explain 
this  paradox;  the  facts  alone  are  given. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  white  clergy  are  themselves  few- 
er in  number,  in  proportion  to  the  people  they  serve,  than 
the  number  of  Christian  ministers  of  various  denomina- 
tions who  have  made  the  service  of  the  Church  their  life 
business  in  America.     Also  these  Russian  married  priests, 

354 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

in  comparison  with  the  servants  of  any  other  Church  in 
any  other  country  in  the  world,  lead  lives  of  poverty,  and, 
in  many  instances,  of  actual  want.  Pitiful  tales,  and  true, 
are  told  of  how,  in  order  to  keep  their  families  alive,  they 
are  reduced  to  direst  extremities.  By  the  Russian  people 
— meaning  the  Russian  peasant — they  are  treated  with  an 
indifference  and  even  a  contempt  which  an  American 
Protestant  minister  or  Catholic  priest  would  not  tolerate 
for  an  instant. 

This  has  been  thought  by  some  careless  observers  to 
mean  that  religion  has  very  little  hold  on  the  people, 
and  that  they  chafe  under  the  rule  of  their  Church.  In 
reality  it  indicates  the  reverse;  for,  even  at  the  risk 
of  repetition,  it  must  be  stated  that  the  Russian  people 
do  not  regard  the  Church  as  belonging  to  the  priests 
by  any  manner  of  means,  but  exactly  the  contrary. 
The  Russian  people  regard  the  Church  as  their  institution 
and  the  priests  as  their  servants. 

So  hard  are  the  conditions  of  the  Russian  married  priest- 
hood, whose  exclusive  business  it  is  to  conduct  Church 
services,  that  one  wonders  why  any  young  man  ever  goes 
into  the  priesthood.  Indeed,  it  is  believed  that  few  would 
do  so  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  the  white  clergy  of 
Russia  is  an  hereditary  institution — that  is,  the  sons  of 
priests  themselves  become  priests.  And  here  is  a  curious 
thing  worthy  of  note,  although  its  final  results  defy  in- 
telligent speculation:  If  a  Russian  priest  dies,  another 
Russian  priest,  probably  the  son  of  some  neighboring 
priest,  takes  charge  of  his  church  and  marries  one  of 
the  members  of  the  dead  priest's  family.  Thus  he  is 
provided  with  a  sort  of  combined  spiritual  and  earthly 
dowry. 

The  question  of  keeping  full  the  ranks  even  of  the 
white  clergy  has  been  a  matter  of  serious  thought  on  the 
part  of  the  imperial  government.  At  one  time  it  was 
proposed  to  better  the  conditions  of  this  oppressed  priest- 
hood by  decreasing  their  numbers;  but  this  did  not  work, 

355 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

because  the  extent  of  territory  assigned  to  each  priest 
and  the  number  of  souls  in  each  district  were  already  so 
great  as  to  tax  his  utmost  endeavors.  So  this  device 
was  abandoned.  Of  course,  as  everybody  knows,  the 
partial  support  of  the  Church — that  is,  of  the  priesthood 
— is  a  part  of  the  business  of  the  imperial  government, 
as  you  will  read  in  the  annual  budget  of  appropriations 
for  this  purpose.  It  is  probable  that  these  appropriations 
will  be  increased  in  the  future,  for  the  Church  is  one  of 
the  most  powerful,  if,  indeed,  not  the  most  powerful  arm 
of  the  Russian  government.  The  reason  of  this  is  that 
the  Church  is  the  one  influence  which  has  a  greater  hold 
upon  the  mind  and  heart  of  the  Russian  people  than  all 
other  influences  in  the  Russian  Empire  combined;  for, 
again  let  it  be  stated  that  the  Church  is  distinctly  a 
popular  institution.  Its  common  faith,  common  forms, 
etc.,  hold  the  Russian  people  together.  There  is  nothing 
like  it  in  all  Russia,  unless,  indeed,  it  be  the  hold  which 
the  popular  conception  of  the  Czar  has  on  the  mind  of 
the  Russian  myriads. 

So  the  Russian  Church  is  a  state  affair,  although  the 
state,  of  course,  did  not  create  it.  It  existed  before  the 
Russian  autocracy,  as  at  present  organized.  Peter  the 
Great  seized  upon  it  purely  as  a  measure  of  statecraft. 
He  had  two  reasons  for  this:  On  the  one  hand,  he  feared 
that  it  might  become  more  powerful  even  than  the  Czar; 
on  the  other  hand  he  saw  here,  with  the  instinct  of  the 
statesman,  a  method  of  solidifying  the  affections  and 
loyalty  of  the  Russian  people  in  the  autocrat  himself. 
And  so  that  mighty  personality,  one  of  the  greatest  re- 
formers that  the  world  has  seen  in  a  thousand  years,  and, 
of  course,  the  most  powerful  Czar  who  ever  reigned  over 
all  the  Russias,  changed  the  administrative  constitution 
of  the  Russian  Greek  Orthodox  Church.  He  took  its 
government  away  from  itself  and  placed  it  in  a  council  of 
state,  called  the  Holy  Synod,  which  in  his  day  was,  and  still 
is,  principally  an  arm  of  the  sovereign  secular  authority. 

356 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

In  this  Holy  Synod,  which  consists  of  dignitaries  of  the 
Church,  appointed  at  will  by  the  Czar,  the  Great  Peter 
placed  the  personal  representative  of  the  Czar.  This 
representative  he  called  the  Procurator  of  the  Holy 
Synod.  Theoretically  this  man  was  not,  and  is  not, 
himself  a  churchman.  He  was  designed  to  be,  and 
is,  the  eyes,  ears,  brain,  and  will  of  the  Czar  in  this 
council  of  Church  administration.  It  immediately  re- 
sulted as  Peter  had  calculated.  The  Holy  Synod  soon 
became  an  administrative  bureau,  a  department  of  state, 
whose  minister,  the  Procurator,  was  the  Czar's  repre- 
sentative. This  was,  and  is,  no  fiction,  and  Peter  the 
Great  did  not  intend  that  it  should  be;  for  the  Procurator 
of  the  Holy  Synod  was  made,  and  is  now,  a  member  of 
the  Czar's  ministry,  quite  as  much  as  the  Minister  of 
Finance,  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  or  the  Minister 
of  the  Interior.  Indeed,  the  two  dominant  minds  of  the 
Russian  cabinet  at  the  present  time  are  Witte,  Minis- 
ter of  Finance  and  now  President  of  the  Committee  of  Min- 
isters, and  Pobyedonostseff ,  Procurator  of  the  Holy  Synod. 

Thus  again  we  see  how  elemental  in  its  simplicity, 
after  all,  the  Russian  government  is;  for  if  on  the  one 
side  a  government  has  absolute  control  of  the  finances 
of  the  nation,  and  on  the  other  side  absolute  control  of 
the  religious  administration  of  the  Church,  to  which  the 
people  are  passionately  devoted,  all  other  elements  of 
power  follow  obediently  in  the  wake  of  these.  As  lead- 
ing a  part  as  the  army  plays  for  the  empire,  either  as  a 
threatening  power  in  the  hands  of  Russian  diplomats 
or  as  actual  force  in  Russian  physical  advance,  it  is 
weak  compared  with  the  strength  perpetually  derived 
by  the  government  from  the  reverent  souls  of  the  Rus- 
sian people  through  the  administration  of  their  beloved 
Church. 

In  short,  Peter  the  Great  grasped  all  the  chords  of 
devotion  and  reverence  and  worship  extending  from 
every  Russian  hamlet  to  the  great  religious  capitals,  and 

357 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

centred  them  all  in  his  own  royal  palace.  Before  this 
tirhe  the  Russian  Czars  had  worn  the  temporal  crown 
and  sat  upon  the  real  throne  of  tangible  power;  but  he 
saw  that  if  that  crown  remained  and  that  throne  con- 
tmued  unshaken,  he  must  grasp  also  the  sceptre  of 
spiritual  power  and  make  himself  and  his  successor,  in  the 
minds  of  the  numerous  and  widely  scattered  population, 
their  spiritual  father  as  well  as  their  temporal  lord.  And 
with  Peter  the  Great,  to  see  a  thing  was  to  do  it;  and  so 
he  did  it.  The  result  is  that  to-day  the  Russian  peasant 
regards  the  Czar,  whom  a  Russian  business  -  man  will 
refer  to  as  a  "modest  little  officer,"  as  the  direct  rep- 
resentative of  Heaven  on  earth,  the  anointed  of  Jehovah, 
a  being  all  but  sacred,  and  entitled  to  the  moujiks' 
reverence  in  much  the  same  way  as  is  the  Master  Himself. 

Thus  we  begin  to  comprehend  the  profound  reasons  of 
state  underlying  the  policy  of  the  Russian  government 
towards  the  Russian  Greek  Orthodox  Church.  Loud  has 
been  the  cry  made  through  Christendom  that  the  Russian 
Church  permits  no  proselyting.  But  to  the  Russian 
statesman  there  are  sound  reasons  of  state  for  this.  In 
an  empire  stretching  over  such  inconceivably  vast  do- 
minions, ruling  so  many  scores  of  millions,  embracing  so 
many  different  peoples,  and  in  the  process  of  absorbing 
so  many  separate  and  distinct  nationalities,  a  common 
faith,  a  common  spiritual  life,  a  common  church  member- 
ship, are  far  and  away  the  greatest  cohesive  power  existing 
or  that  can  exist. 

"  Putting  aside  the  purely  religious  side  of  the  question, 
what  instrument  of  imity  could  we  invent  equal  in  its 
efficiency  to  the  solidifying  power  of  the  Church  ?  As  an 
intelligent  observer,  you  must  grant  that  no  other  element 
of  solidarity  compares  with  it."  So  spoke  a  Russian  public 
man. 

And  so  the  Russian  statesman  argues  that  if  the  Rus- 
sian people  were  split  up  into  the  scores  of  creeds  pre- 
vailing in  other  countries,  the  element  of  solidarity  which 

358 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  Church  affords  would  be  lost,  and  nothing  could  be 
found  to  take  its  place. 

"Besides,"  said,  in  substance,  Pobyedonostseff,  in  a  re- 
cent thoughtful  article,  "the  Orthodox  Church  is  doing 
its  real  work.  It  is  teaching  our  one  hundred  and  forty 
millions  the  few  fundamental  beliefs  that  are  important, 
and  instructing  them  in  the  simple  differences  between 
right  and  wrong." 

On  this  point  of  Church  unity  it  is  asserted  that  the 
Slav  is  quite  unlike  the  Teuton,  especially  unlike  the 
Anglo-Saxon.  For  example,  with  us  here  in  America 
the  sufficient  reason  for  sects  and  denominations  is, 
that  in  this  way  we  appeal  to  all  classes,  and  thus 
bring  to  the  Cross  by  different  routes  various  groups 
of  personaHties  which  one  great  central  organization 
could  not  reach.  But  with  the  Slav  it  is  said  to  be 
different.  Also,  it  is  said  that  the  other  peoples  and 
nationalities  over  whom  he  has  extended  his  dominion 
are,  after  all,  very  much  like  him;  and,  besides,  that  the 
peculiar  absorbing  and  assimilating  powers  of  the  Slav, 
after  a  few  decades,  make  an  aHen  people,  who  have  been 
taken  into  the  empire,  as  much  Russian  as  the  citizen 
of  Moscow.  And  so  it  is  said  that  the  excuse  which 
is  given  for  the  existence,  say,  of  Methodists,  Presby- 
terians, Baptists,  Episcopalians  and  the  like  in  England 
or  America  does  not  exist  in  Russia. 

"And  besides,"  said  a  Russian  gentleman,  "what  is  the 
need  of  all  these  denominations,  after  all?  You  tell  me 
you  are  a  Methodist.  I  suppose  you  have  friends  who  are 
Presbyterians  and  Baptists  and  Episcopalians.  Is  there 
any  essential  difference  in  your  creeds  when  you  reach 
the  bottom?  If  a  stranger  were  to  go  into  one  of  your 
cities,  not  informed  beforehand,  could  he  tell  from  the 
service  itself  or  from  the  preaching  he  heard  or  the  songs 
he  listened  to,  whether  he  was  in  a  Presbyterian,  a  Baptist, 
or  a  Methodist  church  ?  After  all,  every  one  of  you  are  try- 
ing to  accomplish  the  same  thing.     Every  one  of  you,  I 

359 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

take  it,  believe  in  God,  in  Christ  His  Son,  and  in  the  soul's 
immortality.  I  also  take  it  that  none  of  you  have  any- 
thing else  extremely  important.  But  those  are  also  the 
things  our  Russian  Church  teaches.  So  what  purpose 
would  be  served  by  permitting  our  Church  to  be  disrupted 
by  foolish  proselyting  among  its  membership,  except  the 
disruption  of  the  empire,  and  that  would  be  the  greatest 
calamity  of  all." 

So  the  Russian  imperial  government  more  than  rules 
the  Church;  and  rules  it  with  far  more  of  an  "iron  hand"" 
than  it  rules  the  Russian  people.  For  instance,  there 
was  a  time  when  the  Russian  monasteries  and  religious 
associations  were  extensive  land  -  owners.  The  Czar 
remedied  that  by  taking  their  lands  away  from  them, 
and  the  state  support  to  some  of  these  monasteries 
to  this  day  is  excused  upon  the  ground  that  it  is  a  sort 
of  meagre  return  for  depriving  them  of  their  property 
two  or  three  centuries  ago.^  Indeed,  the  most  strenuous 
advocates  of  autocracy  (and  there  are  plenty  of  them, 
and  very  sincere  ones,  too)  insist  that  the  autocracy 
exists  exclusively  for  the  people,  and  that  history  shows 
that  the  Czar's  authority  brooks  no  rivalry  within  Russian 
domains.  In  support  of  this  they  point  to  the  seizures 
by  the  Czar  of  the  lands  of  the  monasteries,  on  the  one 
hand,  and,  on  the  other,  to  the  forced  sale  by  Alexander 
the  Liberator  of  the  landed  estates  of  the  nobles  to  those 
very  nobles'  former  serfs,  whom  the  emancipator  at  the 
same  time  set  free. 

"You  foreigners,"  said  one  of  these  apologists  for  au- 
tocracy, "can  rail  at  our  Russian  autocracy  all  you  please, 
but  you  rail  ignorantly;  for,  after  all,  the  government  of 
the  Czar  is  first,  last,  and  all  the  time  for  the  Russian  peo- 
ple.    The  Russian  noble  is  not  a  power  in  our  land.     The 

'  The  government  might  take  lands  from  the  monasteries  and 
arouse  no  popular  resentment;  but  confiscation  of  the  gold, 
jewels,  etc.,  stored  there  would  be  dangerously  unpopular,  be- 
cause these  treasures  belong  to  the  holy  icons. 

360 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Czar  compels  him  to  sell  his  estates  to  his  former  serfs, 
whether  he  wants  to  or  not.  The  priest  is  not  a  power  in 
our  land.  The  Czar,  the  spiritual  head  of  this  great  peo- 
ple, makes  the  priest  his  servant  and  agent." 

Thus  we  begin  to  see  how  it  is  that  a  Russian  who  is  in 
religious  belief  a  dissenter  from  all  the  doctrines  of  the 
Russian  Greek  Orthodox  Church,  or  who  is  even  an  infi- 
del or  an  atheist,  may  nevertheless  be  a  devoted  member 
and  adherent  of  the  national  religious  organization.  It  is 
a  part  of  the  empire.  It  is  the  soul  of  Russian  nationality- 
He  is  a  loyal  Russian,  ready  and  glad  to  give  his  life  on  the 
battle-fields  of  his  country  in  defence  of  its  flag.  Why 
should  he  not,  therefore — nay,  why  must  he  not,  there- 
fore— uphold  that  institution  which,  in  popular  meaning, 
is  the  breath  of  life  of  Russian  solidarity.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  again  becomes  clear  why  peasant,  business-man, 
or  nobleman,  who  is  dissatisfied  with  the  civil  administra- 
tion, or  who  is  a  civil  reformer  and  yet  a  devout  believer 
in  the  Russian  Greek  Orthodox  Church,  is  held  firm  in  his 
loyalty  by  the  latter  fact. 

Perhaps  this  is  one  reason  for  the  solicitude  of  the  Holy 
Synod  as  an  arm  of  the  government  in  extending  the  ser- 
vice of  the  national  Church  wherever  the  colors  of  the  Czar 
advance.  It  has  already  been  noted  that  the  Russian 
village  is  seldom  without  its  church ;  that  even  in  consider- 
able towns  the  number  of  these  sacred  edifices  appears  to 
be  entirely  out  of  proportion  to  the  spiritual  needs  of  the 
people;  and  that  in  the  cities  ecclesiastical  architecture 
is  the  dominant  and  commanding  feature.  Also  it  is  true 
that  these  scores  of  thousands  of  Christian  temples  are 
constantly  attended  by  the  faithful. 

But  the  activity  of  the  Church  authorities  does  not  stop 
with  the  erection  of  these  stationary  edifices  of  worship. 
At  a  certain  village  of  no  particular  consequence  in  Trans- 
Baikal  Siberia  the  familiar  sounds  of  the  Russian  sacred 
service  were  heard  before  the  train  stopped.  Where  could 
these  sounds  come  from?     Certainly  in  the  many  towns 

361 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

and  cities  visited  no  cathedral  had  before  been  observed 
so  near  to  the  railway -track  that  you  could  hear  the  voice 
of  the  priest  from  your  car.  Yet  the  rich  intoning  con- 
tinued, and  the  responses  rang  with  a  distinctness  which 
showed  that  they  came  from  a  point  not  many  feet  away. 

"Oh,  that  is  some  church-car,"  explained  a  Russian 
fellow-traveller,  in  answer  to  the  stranger's  inquiry.  "  Yes, 
there  it  is  on  the  siding." 

And  there  it  was  on  the  siding.  This  car  was  a  cathe- 
dral on  wheels.  It  was  fitted  up  just  as  a  Russian  church 
is  equipped.  It  was  attended  by  priests  assigned  to  this 
railroad  church  service.  The  purpose  of  this  is  that  the 
travelling  Russian,  and  particularly  the  peasant,  who  is 
temporarily  without  a  spiritual  home,  may  be  afforded  the 
customary,  and  to  him  necessary,  religious  ministrations. 
Not  that  the  peasant  does  not  go  through  his  devotions 
whether  he  has  a  church  and  a  priest  near  or  not.  For 
he  does  go  through  his  daily  form  of  worship  no  matter 
what  else  he  may  omit. 

On  Siberian  trains  or  Amur  boato  you  may  behold  this 
exhibition  of  fervid  faith  any  morning  you  may  please  to 
bestir  yourself  in  time  to  see  it.  No  matter  that  the  car 
or  boat  is  crowded;  no  matter  that  curious  foreigners  are 
scrutinizing  him ;  no  matter  what  the  conditions  or  who  is 
present,  the  Russian  peasant  will  stand  with  his  face  to 
the  east,  murmur  his  prayer  of  supplication  and  of  praise 
to  his  Maker,  and  prostrate  himself  before  an  invisible 
throne  which  only  the  eyes  of  his  faith  behold.  And 
never  will  you  hear  from  the  lips  of  the  most  contemptu- 
ous traveller  a  single  syllable  of  criticism,  so  unmistakably 
genuine  is  this  Russian  peasant's  devotions. 

Another  striking  circumstance  is  that  the  Russian  sol- 
dier is,  if  possible,  even  more  punctual  and  exact  than  his 
peaceful  peasant  brother.  It  is  a  mere  commonplace  that 
military  life  destroys  the  practice  of  religious  worship, 
and  even  uproots  religion  itself.  But  certainly  this  does 
not  appear  to  b©  tine  of  the  Russian  soldier.     Observed 

363 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

under  numerous  and  different  conditions,  he  never  failed 
to  appear,  in  outward  form  at  least,  reverent,  devotional, 
full  of  the  spirit  of  worship.  Recall  the  description  pre- 
viously given  of  the  chanted  prayer  of  the  company  of 
Cossacks  in  the  rainy  night  in  central  Manchuria.  And 
it  is  said  that  the  Russian  soldier's  spiritual  and  mental 
attitude  before  or  after  great  battles  is  even  more  im- 
pressive. The  following  vivid  description  of  religious 
services  held  by  the  Russian  troops  before  the  terrible 
redoubts  of  Plevna,  during  the  Turkish  war,  is  taken 
from  the  brilliant  account  of  "  Army  Life  in  Russia,"  by 
F.  V.  Greene,  of  the  United  States  Army; 

"After  the  troops  had  all  been  visited  an  open-air  mass  was  held. 
One  division  of  about  ten  thousand  men  was  drawn  up  on  the 
plain  west  of  Plevna,  and  about  two  miles  from  the  high  range  of 
hills  on  which  the  Turkish  batteries  stood ;  the  division  was  formed 
on  three  sides  of  a  square,  with  a  few  squadrons  of  cavalry  on  each 
flank.  In  the  centre  stood  the  Emperor,  alone  and  bareheaded, 
slightly  in  advance  of  his  suite;  in  front  of  him  was  the  priest,  m 
gorgeous  robes,  with  a  golden  crucifix  and  the  Bible  laid  on  a  pile 
of  drums  which  answered  for  an  altar;  a  short  distance  to  one  side 
was  a  choir  consisting  of  twenty  or  thirty  soldiers  with  fine  musical 
voices.  Every  one  uncovered  his  head,  and  the  service  began  in 
that  slow,  sad  chant  which  is  peculiar  to  the  Greek  Church.  At  the 
name  of  Jesus  every  one  of  the  vast  crowd  crossed  himself.  On 
the  opposite  hills,  as  the  service  went  on,  could  be  seen  large  num- 
bers of  Turks  congregating  in  wonder  at  the  assembly  of  this  large 
number  of  men.  Finally  came  the  prayer  for  the  repose  of  those 
who  had  died  in  the  battle  of  a  few  days  before.  The  Emperor 
knelt  on  the  ground  resting  his  head  on  the  hilt  of  his  sword;  every 
one  followed  his  example,  and  the  whole  division  knelt  there  with 
their  guns  in  one  hand,  crossing  themselves  with  the  other,  and 
following,  in  a  subdued  voice,  the  words  of  the  chant. 

"Nothing  could  give  a  clearer  perception  of  the  relations  be- 
tween the  Czar  and  his  men  than  this  strangely  impressive  scene; 
the  Gosudar  Imperator  (our  Lord  the  Emperor)  surrounded  by 
his  people,  with  arms  in  their  hands,  facing  their  hereditary  ene- 
mies in  religion  and  politics,  and  chanting  in  slow  monotone, 
whose  periods  were  marked  by  the  booming  of  distant  cannon,  the 
requiem  for  their  dead  comrades.  The  Russians  have  no  fewer 
daily  sins  to  answer  for  than  other  people,  but  the  feeling  which 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

binds  the  lower  classes  to  their  Czar  is  one  of  purely  religious  en- 
thusiasm and  veneration,  which  finds  no  counterpart  elsewhere  in 
these  latter  days." 


All  of  this  means  something;  and  that  something,  no 
matter  what  you  may  call  it,  is  the  most  vital  influence 
in  Russian  character,  and  must  be  taken  into  serious 
account  in  all  estimates  of  the  Russian  people,  their  pur- 
poses and  their  future. 

The  icon,  or  sacred  image,  in  every  place  of  business — 
every  store,  every  vodka-shop,  every  factory,  every  dwell- 
ing-place, whether  the  lordly  mansion  of  the  noble  rich 
or  the  hovel  of  the  Siberian  emigrant;  whether  in  the 
enormous  palace  of  the  Czar  himself  or  in  the  vilest 
abodes  of  licensed  shame  in  the  empire's  cities — all  this, 
let  it  be  repeated,  means  something.  Russian  life,  Rus- 
sian culture,  even  Russian  business,  and,  most  of  all,  Rus- 
sian purpose  are  not  to  be  even  dimly  understood,  unless 
this  deepest  and  yet  highest,  and  certainly  most  universal, 
phase  of  the  Russian  mind  is  taken  into  account.  It  is 
not  for  nothing  that  noble,  peasant,  prince,  criminal, 
philanthropist,  society  leader — all  classes — make  obei- 
sance to  the  holy  images.  It  is  not  for  nothing  that  every 
Russian,  utterly  without  regard  to  station,  condition,  or 
any  possible  human  circumstances,  wears  about  his  neck 
and  upon  his  breast,  next  to  his  very  heart,  the  little  cross. 

Nowhere  can  you  see  this  latter  significant  fact  better 
than  on  a  large  and  crowded  boat  on  the  Amur  River,  at 
low  water,  where  frequent  and  long  stops  are  made 
necessary  and  where  bathing  in  the  river  by  everybody 
is  practised  at  each  stop.  Peasant,  emigrant,  business- 
men en  route  to  the  Far  East,  army  officers  on  their  way 
to  their  commiands  in  Manchuria,  noblemen  bearing 
special  commissions  from  the  Czar,  wealthy  mine-owners 
from  the  great  gold-fields  far  to  the  north  of  Irkutsk,  men, 
women,  and  children  —  not  one  of  them  was  observed 
without  the  little  cross  hung  around  the  neck,  and  never 

364 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

removed,  not  even  for  bathing.  Around  the  neck  of  the 
millionaire  it  may  be  attached  to  a  finely  wrought  gold 
chain;  around  the  neck  of  the  moujik  it  will  be  sus- 
pended by  a  common  stout  string;  but  it  is  there,  and  it 
is  the  cross,  and  it  means  exactly  the  same  thing  to  both 
of  them. 

The  Russian  soldiers  in  citizens'  garb,  surreptitiously 
advancing  by  tens  and  scores  towards  the  militant  Russian 
host  massing  in  the  Far  East  for  the  impending  conflict 
with  Japan,  bowing  to  the  rising  sun  and  repeating  the 
same  prayers  uttered  at  the  same  moment  by  scores  of 
millions  of  other  Russians  scattered  all  over  the  vast 
empire;  the  Cossack  company  in  the  heart  of  Manchuria 
chanting  their  nightly  petition  to  the  throne  of  grace;  the 
nobler  choir  in  the  Kremlin  on  Easter  Day  pouring  forth 
songs  of  joy  that  Christ  is  risen — are  all  engaged  in  the 
same  service,  which  has  the  same  meaning,  and  which  re- 
veals the  same  profound  and  universal  faith.  In  the 
magnificent  cathedral  of  St.  Isaac's  at  St.  Petersburg,  in 
the  extemporized  service  at  a  railvv-ay-station,  amid  en- 
camped battalions  of  armed  Russia  in  the  Ussuri  littoral, 
everywhere  and  always  it  is  "Holy  Russia"  which  speaks 
— "Holy  Russia"  ever  singing,  ever  praying,  ever  ad- 
vancing. 

And  doubt  not  that  it  is  "Holy  Russia"  indeed.  Grant- 
ing all  their  superstition,  conceding  their  ignorance, 
giving  full  credit  to  every  unfortunate  phase  which  the 
Christian  religion  takes  among  this  peculiar  people,  he 
who  travels  the  empire  from  end  to  end,  with  eyes  to  see 
and  ears  to  hear,  cannot  but  admit  that  here  is  a  power 
in  human  affairs,  bhnd  it  may  be,  cruel  ofttimes,  no 
doubt,  but  still  reverent,  devotional,  and  fairly  saturated 
with  a  faith  so  deep  that  it  is  instinctive,  and  the  like 
of  which  may  not  be  witnessed  in  all  the  earth.  What  it 
will  all  result  in  he  would  be  foolish,  indeed,  who  would 
predict.  But  that  it  exists  is  certain;  that  it  moves 
forward,   slowly  perhaps,  to  the  eye  of  the  hour,   but 

365 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

rapidly  to  the  eye  of  history,  and,  in  any  case,  irresist- 
ibly, is  merely  a  fact.  "Holy  Russia!"  There  she  stands, 
or,  rather,  yonder  she  marches.  Make  of  her  what  you 
will ;  say  of  her  what  you  will ;  but  do  not  forget  that  she 
exists,  and  exists  increasingly.^ 

*  Most  of  the  thousands  of  Russian  churches  and  cathedrals 
are  built  with  money  voluntarily  given  by  the  common  people. 


w 


'SPITZBEIiGEX 


Ji 


North  Cape  ^^  ^A     ^  ^ '' 


/       .  MADRID 


RUSSIA.    AXD    THE    REMAi: 


r*-   .       > 


VI,, K.,    ,\  ^    W<r  jT^^i^f       S 


■IjiliF^     §s'l'OK.lI()SA 
"Xi-^ -Hongkong 


O       C      E      jl      N 


Manilas  Vjg 
SA'.l         .'^4  QI.SI.,\.M)S 


CHINA 


EUROPE    AND    ASIA 


XXV 

RUSSIAN    NATIONAL   IDEALS 

NO  matter  how  casual  his  observation,  every  traveller 
through  Russia  will  run  across  evidences  of  Russian 
idealism.  On  the  other  hand,  men  who  have  given  their 
lives  to  the  study  of  this  curious  people  declare  that  the 
Russian  is,  first  of  all,  an  idealist.  Again,  even  we 
Americans  who  read  Tolstoi,  and  Turgenieff,  and  Gorkey 
have  revealed  to  us  in  the  writings  of  these  first  of  Russian 
literary  intellects  the  characteristic  of  ideality  in  spite 
of  their  realism.  Even  those  who  remember  the  diary 
of  the  Russian  girl,  Maria  Bashkirtseff,  which,  through 
Mr.  Gladstone's  enthusiastic  endorsement,  gained  world- 
wide currency,  remember  it  as  a  queer  conglomeration  of 
ideahstic  impressions.  All  testimony  from  all  sources 
leads  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Slav  mind  is  essentially 
idealistic. 

Remember,  now,  that  even  deeper  than  this  idealism 
in  the  soul  of  this  strange  people  is  religion ;  and  then  call 
to  mind  its  passion  for  order,  its  devotion  to  mere  form; 
and.  with  this,  recall  again  that,  buffeted  for  centuries  by 
Asiatics  on  the  east,  by  other  Asiatics  on  the  south,  by 
warlike  Europeans  on  the  west,  Russia  has  been  com- 
pelled to  d  velop  a  foreign  statesmanship,  unnecessary 
and  unknown  to  any  other  nation,  and  a  diplomacy  skil- 
ful and  resourceful  beyond  that  of  any  other  people  of 
ancient  or  modem  times.  Take  all  these  things  into 
account,  and  you  have  the  great  springs  and  sources 
whence  flow  the  two  sovereign  ideals  of  the  Russian 
people. 

1^1 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

These  two  ideals  are,  first,  the  preservation  of  rehgious 
faith,  and,  when  the  rest  of  the  disputing  world  shall  have 
grown  weary  of  its  spiritual  conflicts,  the  restoration  of 
that  simple  faith  to  all  mankind;  and  the  second  is  like 
unto  the  first — namely .  the  preservation  of  order,  form,  and 
authority  in  civil  affairs,  and  when  the  rest  of  the  world 
shall  have  completed  its  circle  of  liberty,  and  then  license, 
and  finally  anarchy  (which  is  what  the  Russians  believe 
we  are  doing),  to  restore  to  the  confused,  hopeless,  strug- 
gling peoples  of  the  earth  those  forms  of  social  order  and 
political  authority  which  the  Slav  thinks  are,  after  all, 
the  foundation-stones  of  civilization. 

Incident  to  this  last  is  the  more  immediate  Russian 
idealistic  purpose  of  spreading  her  dominions  over  all  of 
Asia.  To  the  Russian  mind,  China  is  to  be  Russian, 
Persia  is  to  be  Russian,  India  is  to  be  Russian.  It  is  Rus- 
sian power  which  is  to  restore  the  cross  to  Jerusalem. 
It  is  Holy  Russia  that  is  to  bring  the  authority  of  His  faith 
to  the  land  where  the  Saviour  of  mankind  walked  and 
taught  and  was  crucified.     So  thinks  the  Russian. 

The  son  of  one  of  the  greatest  of  Slavophiles  happened  to 
be  a  travelling  companion  for  several  days.  Tall,  slender, 
blond,  blue-eyed,  cultivated  to  the  very  last  point  to  which 
the  universities  of  Europe  could  finish  him,  the  ardor  of 
this  young  Russian  was  as  startling  as  it  was  engaging. 

"Why  make  a  secret  of  it?"  said  he.  "Did  not  our 
great  Czar,  who  made  but  one  fundamental  mistake  (the 
mistake  of  attempting  to  force  western  European  notions 
upon  Russia),  but  who  was  a  prophet,  point  out  our  des- 
tiny with  the  very  finger  of  inspiration?  Oh  yes;  never 
permit  yourself  to  doubt  it  for  a  moment.  India  will  be 
Russian  just  as  surely  as  Manchuria  will." 

A  Russian  soldier,  not  a  St.  Petersburg  carpet  knight, 
nor  ladies'  warrior  either,  but  a  Slav  hotspur,  a  man 
whose  life  has  been  spent  on  the  stricken  field,  and  who 
at  the  time  of  the  following  conversation  was  in  active 
service,  said: 

368 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

"You  foreigners  call  us  a  rapacious  military  people. 
Don't  deny  it,  for  we  know  what  is  said;  we  know  about 
the  slanders  published  of  us.  The  world,  especially  Eng- 
land, call  us  the  'nation  of  the  sword.'  There  is  Mr.  Kip- 
ling, who  refers  to  Russia  as  'the  bear  who  walks  like  a 
man.'  Our  occupation  is  supposed  to  be  conquest,  and 
yet" — and  here  this  successful  soldier  grew  as  animated 
in  gesture  as  any  sensational  orator  or  emotional  evangel- 
ist in  America — "  and  yet,"  he  continued,  "Russia  has 
never  waged  a  war  except  for  an  ideal.  No  other  country 
on  earth  or  in  history  can  say  as  much,  except,  perhaps, 
your  own  American  republic.  Look  at  the  lives  we  lost 
in  our  conflict  with  the  Turks.  Why  did  we  go  into  that 
war?  It  was  purely  the  act  of  a  Christian  nation  to  pro- 
tect Christians.  There  was  not  and  could  not  be  any 
gain  to  us.  Why  do  we  maintain  large  numbers  of  troops 
near  the  Balkan  states?  Because  we  want  those  princi- 
palities? No  sensible  person,  unless  he  is  crazy  with  prej- 
udice against  us,  would  say  so.  What  good  would  they 
do  ?  Why  did  Skobeleff  strike  with  the  sword  of  Gideon 
in  central  Asia?  Look  at  that  land  to-day,  as  peaceful 
as  any  section  of  your  own  country,  as  orderly  and  as 
safe;  and  then  recall  the  terrible  waste  it  was  before  the 
maligned  Russian  soldier  gave  it  civilization,  and  even  an 
Englishman  must  see  the  answer."  And  much  more  to 
the  same  effect. 

The  strange  thing  about  this  was  that  this  Russian 
officer  believed  exactly  what  he  said  as  fervently  as  any 
missionary  that  ever  went  forth  in  the  world's  dark 
places  to  give  to  the  benighted  the  light  of  the  gospel. 

"Why  do  you  doubt  our  zeal  and  its  purity?"  said  a 
member  of  the  Slavophile  party.  "You  boast  of  your 
high  purposes  in  the  Philippines.  Other  countries  have 
produced  men  of  a  faith  so  passionate  that  they  gladly 
yielded  up  the  comforts  of  their  native  land,  and  even 
life  itself,  in  preaching  the  Word.  Take  the  Jesuit  mis- 
sionaries in  the  early  history  of  your  own  country;  take 
24  369 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  same  class  and  consider  their  fate  some  centuries 
ago  in  Japan.  Well,  are  we  Russians  the  only  people  who 
are  without  the  element  that  other  nations  pride  them- 
selves upon  ?  I  tell  you,  no.  I  tell  you  that,  of  all  peoples 
of  ancient  and  modem  times,  the  one  most  devoted  to 
ideals,  so  high  that  they  are  almost  mystical  and  scarcely 
understood  by  the  people  themselves,  is  the  Russian 
people." 

Students  of  expansion  will  agree  with  Russian  eco- 
nomic statesmen  that  Russian  advance  towards  the  Per- 
sian Gulf,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Yellow  Sea,  on  the 
other,  is  due  to  the  fundamental  cause  of  the  absolute 
necessity  that  this  most  numerous  of  peoples  shall  reach 
the  open  sea.  An  American  newspaper,  in  a  studious 
and  thoughtful  editorial  on  the  Manchurian  question, 
recently  pointed  out  the  fact  that  the  Russian  occupation 
of  Manchuria  was  permanent,  and  was  caused  by  natural 
pressure  of  the  growing  Russian  people  combined  with  Rus- 
sia's just  rights  to  ice-free  ports  on  the  open  sea.  These 
contentions  of  thoughtful  American  journalists,  of  capable 
and  observant  travellers,  of  students  of  the  movements 
of  races,  and  of  Russian  economic  statesmen  themselves 
are  probably  correct.     They  explain  Manchuria. 

They  may  even  explain  central  Asia.  But  they  do  not 
explain  the  presence  of  Russian  agents  all  through  Af- 
ghanistan. They  do  not  explain  Russian  influence  in 
Thibet,  and  practical  Russian  sovereignty  at  Lahassa. 
They  do  not  explain  those  silent  influences  in  China, 
always  persuasive,  never  sleeping,  which  are  gradually 
making  groups  of  Asiatics  all  over  that  most  ancient  and 
populous  of  countries  Russian  in  their  sympathies.  They 
do  not  explain  the  mysterious  moral  and  mental  processes 
going  on  in  the  Far  Eastern  mind,  which  no  observer 
who  really  gets  beneath  the  surface  of  things  has  failed 
to  note,  and  which  looks  to  the  future  turning  of  the 
Asiatic  peoples  to  the  standard  of  the  Czar. 

But  the  Russian's  conception  of  his  duty  and  his  destiny 

i7<^ 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

in  the  Far  East  does  explain  it.  His  subconscious  thought 
that  it  is  to  be  the  glory  of  his  race  to  set  up  the  cross 
over  all  of  Asia's  myriads  of  millions,  and  to  bring  them  to 
the  faith  of  the  Crucified  One,  does  explain  it.  You  could 
not  find  a  Russian  business -man,  much  less  a  Russian 
statesman,  and  least  of  all  a  Russian  diplomat,  who  would 
admit  for  a  single  instant  this  proposition  when  thus 
baldly  put  before  him.  Indeed,  the  Russian  business- 
man is  pretty  generally  opposed  to  expansion. 

"Give  me  no  more  China  wars,"  said  a  Russian  cotton 
manufacturer.  "That  was  a  ridiculous  mistake.  It  cost 
hundreds  of  millions  of  rubles,  and  not  a  kopeck  do  we 
get  for  it.  Future  trade!"  he  exclaimed,  in  answer  to  a 
question.  "Nonsense;  we  cannot  supply  our  own  market 
for  a  generation  to  come.  I  should  like  to  know  what 
profit  there  will  be  for  me  to  manufacture  goods  when  I 
consider  the  price  of  raw  materials,  the  cost  and  ineffi- 
ciency of  our  labor,  and  then  add  to  all  of  that  railway 
freights  for  thousands  and  thousands  of  miles." 

"Do  not  be  afraid  that  we  won't  give  Manchuria  back 
to  China,"  said  a  Russian  nobleman,  whose  conversation 
weeks  of  close  companionship  had  made  quite  casual. 
"We  have  too  much  territory  now.  It  strains  our  ma- 
chinery of  government  to  run  what  we  have.  Of  course, 
we  must  keep  Port  Arthur  and  Dalni.  But  they  are 
leased  to  us,  with  a  little  piece  of  land  around,  and  have 
nothing  to  do  with  Manchuria,  which  is  nearly  as  big  as  the 
whole  of  Russia  itself.  Of  course,  even  I,  who  am  what 
you  call  in  America  an  anti-expansionist,  do  not  like  to  see 
that  great  province  given  back  to  Chinese  barbarism  again, 
and  I  feel  that  we  must  do  our  part  in  Christianizing  the 
world;  but  our  load  is  already  almost  heavier  than  we 
can  bear." 

Nevertheless,  as  is  elsewhere  pointed  out,  no  probability 
in  the  world  of  international  politics  seems  greater  than 
the  permanency  of  Russian  occupation  of  Manchuria. 
But  the  great  reason  underlying  the  continuous  march  of 

371 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Russia  over  Asia,  from  the  time  when  the  Russians  threw 
off  the  Tartar  yoke,  may  be  found  in  a  national  thought 
and  purpose,  a  popular  ideal  so  deep  and  ancient  that  it 
may  be  really  called  an  instinct,  which  propels  the  Slav 
to  bear  the  law  and  order  and  authority  of  the  Czar  and 
the  religion  of  the  Master  over  all  the  East. 

Russia's  peculiar  preparation  for  this  will  be  pointed 
out  to  you  by  any  enthusiastic  Russian.  The  argument 
runs  in  this  wise:  Russia  is  next  to  Asia.  From  time  im- 
memorial Russia  has  been  the  barrier  that  has  saved  west- 
ern Europe  from  inundations  of  Asiatic  military  hordes 
during  the  terrible  centuries  of  the  past.  For  two  hun- 
dred years  the  Russian  people  were  under  the  actual  gov- 
ernment of  the  Khan.  These  two  centuries  of  Tartar  sub- 
jugation of  the  Slav  race  made  Russia  familiar  with  Asiatic 
peoples,  methods,  habits,  and  thought  as  no  other  people 
will  or  can  ever  be.  Also,  the  rule  of  Russia  by  the  Tar- 
tars for  these  two  centuries  added  to  the  Slav  blood  a  per- 
ceptible strain  of  Asiatic  blood.  (And  did  not  Napoleon 
say,  "Scratch  a  Russian  and  you  will  find  a  Tartar"?) 
Indeed,  many  of  the  noble  houses  of  Russia  bear  Tartar 
names.  You  may  find  nobles  in  the  empire  who  are  proud- 
er of  their  Tartar  origin  than  they  are  of  their  title  to  no- 
bility, etc. 

However  runs  the  argument,  or  whatever  the  causes, 
full  of  charm  as  they  are  to  the  contemplative  student, 
the  fact  remains  that  Russia  is  advancing  over  Asia,  and 
will  continue  to  advance.  The  fact  remains,  too,  that 
she  does  this  against  well  -  reasoned  conclusions  of  her 
own  statesmen ;  against  the  almost  unanimous  conviction 
of  the  business  interests  of  the  country;  against  the 
surface  thought  and  present-hour  consideration  of  her 
most  intelligent  minds;  against  the  protests  of  the  exag- 
gerated humanitarianism  of  her  intellectual  classes,  like 
Tolstoi.  But  in  spite  of  the  best  reasoning  of  her  states- 
men, those  very  statesmen  themselves  continue  to  ad- 
vance.    It  is  a  strange  phenomenon.     Of  course,  it  will 

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THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

not  do  to  say  that  this  is  in  obedience  to  the  intelligent 
will  of  the  Russian  masses;  for  the  Russian  masses,  as  an 
actual,  tangible  proposition,  perhaps  know  nothing  about 
it  and  think  nothing  about  it.  And  yet  among  these 
very  masses  there  is  this  instinct  towards  Asiatic  expan- 
sion, above  noted,  which  has  at  the  root  of  it  a  religious 
impulse. 

These  two  statements  make  an  exact  paradox,  and  seem 
unintelligible.  Contradictory  as  they  are,  they  are  true. 
Go  into  the  peasant  home  of  the  country  districts,  and,  if 
you  find  no  other  pictures  on  the  walls  of  the  dilapidated 
dwellings,  you  will  find  a  cheap  and  tawdry  print  purport- 
ing to  set  out  various  scenes  in  the  suppression  of  the 
Boxers  in  China  by  the  allied  troops.  In  any  book-store 
of  Moscow  which  caters  to  the  work-people  (and  you  will 
find  many  of  these  little  booths),  there  are  piles  of  these 
prints.  All  of  them  represent  the  white-clad  Russian  sol- 
diers leading  the  charge,  and  in  most  of  them  there  is 
some  representation  of  the  advancing  cross.  It  is  note- 
worthy that  these  prints,  of  which  the  Russian  peasant  is 
so  fond,  are  almost  equally  divided  between  religious 
and  military  subjects.  Pictures  of  the  Saviour,  the 
Virgin,  the  saints,  prints  representing  scenes  from  the 
Bible,  others  representing  Russian  soldiers  battling  for 
the  cross  in  heathen  lands — these  comprise  the  entire  and 
exclusive  stock-in-trade,  so  far  as  pictures  are  concerned, 
of  these  little  stores,  patronized  exclusively  by  the  moujik. 

So,  beginning  at  the  bottom,  and  with  the  purpose  most 
nearly  at  hand,  control  of  Asia  may  be  said  to  be  an  ideal 
of  the  Russian  people.  Whether  the  realization  of  this 
ideal  will  be  good  or  bad  for  civilization,  whether  Amer- 
ican policy  should  fall  in  with  it  or  fight  it  to  a  finish, 
whether  in  the  end  it  will  be  accomplished  or  not,  it  is  not 
the  purpose  of  this  study  to  inquire.  Facts  are  being 
noted,  and  this  idealistic  purpose  of  Holy  Russia  to  ad- 
vance on  Asia  is  a  fact — a  present  fact,  an  aggressive, 
militant,  ever-progressing  fact.     It  is  a  fact  which  the 

373 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

British  Foreign  Office  troubles  over  more  than  any  other 
of  its  imperial  world-problems.  It  is  a  fact  constantly 
before  the  Viceroy  of  India  and  his  cabinet.  It  is  a  fact 
discussed  in  the  counting-houses  of  Hong-Kong.  It  is  a 
fact  which  the  English  soldier  v/ho  holds  the  "thin,  red 
line"  on  the  outpost  of  English  dominion  in  the  Far  East 
encounters  in  armed  and  deadly  form  and  force  in  his  un- 
ending skirmishes  with  the  hillmen. 

Enlarge  this  ideal  now  until  it  spreads  around  the  world. 
Take  as  its  interpreter  the  most  intense  personality,  one 
of  the  most  instructed  minds,  and  certainly  as  courageous 
a  soul  as  Russia  possesses,  Pobyedonostseff,  Procurator  of 
the  Holy  Synod.  He  is  said  by  some  to  be  the  soul  of 
bigotry;  he  is  certainly  bitterly  hated  by  many;  but  he  is 
the  personification  of  orthodox  Russia.  This  man  has 
written  a  book.  It  is  published  in  English  under  the  title 
of  Reflections  of  a  Russian  Statesman.  There  are  probably 
not  a  dozen  copies  in  the  United  States;  and  yet,  if  any- 
body expects  to  understand  the  Russian  point  of  view,  he 
must  read  this  book.  Nearly  all  of  it  is  given  to  an  attack 
upon  the  democratic  form  of  government  and  atheistic  ten- 
dencies in  religion.  Here  are  the  titles  of  some  of  these 
essays:  "The  New  Democracy,"  "The  Great  Falsehood  of 
Our  Time,"  "Trial  by  Jury,"  "The  Press."  "The  Malady 
of  Our  Time,"  "Power  and  Authority,"  "The  Ideals  of 
Unbelief,"  etc. 

The  views  set  out  in  these  remarkable  essays  are  a  very 
fair  and,  at  the  same  time,  powerful  statement  of  the  pre- 
vailing thought  and  aspiration  of  the  Russian  people. 

An  intensified  summary  of  them  is  as  follows:  Democ- 
racy is  not  natural.  It  cannot  be  permanently  successful. 
It  is  false,  too,  because  it  pretends  to  be  a  rule  of  the  peo- 
ple, whereas  it  is  only  the  rule  by  a  few  politicians,  whose 
purposes  are  usually  selfish  and  corrupt.  The  result  of  gov- 
ernment of  this  kind  is  constant  diffusion  of  power,  con- 
stant increase  of  license,  until  all  respect  for  authority  is 
destroyed,  and  the  country  so  unfortunately  circumstanced 

374 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

must  choose  the  alternative  of  anarchy  or  the  tyranny  of 
some  bold,  resourceful  "man  on  horseback."  Substan- 
tially, the  same  is  true  of  religion.  By  debating  about  non- 
essentials, by  quoting  this  or  that  unimportant  passage  of 
the  Scripture,  by  cultivating  a  passion  for  innovation  in 
Biblical  study,  by  endless  disputes,  by  splitting  up  into 
unending  sects  and  creeds,  Protestantism  gradually  de- 
moralizes the  very  foundation  of  faith  itself,  until  nobody 
believes  very  much  in  anything.  Finally,  reasons  Pobye- 
donostseff,  the  non  -  Russian  world  will  be  reduced  to 
atheism  in  religion  and  anarchy  in  government. 

And  to  restore  to  sanity,  faith,  order,  a  world  thus  de- 
moralized, is  the  great  ideal  of  the  Russian  soul. 

"Take  a  long  look  over  the  other  so-called  Christian 
nations  of  the  world,"  said  a  Russian  scholar,  who  is  a  fer- 
vent believer  in  the  ideas  above  condensed  from  Pobye- 
donostseff's  book.  "Can  you  help  seeing  that  what  you 
call  the  free  preaching  of  the  Word  is  nothing  but  a  dis- 
orderly and  ignorant  mutilation  of  it?  Look  how  many 
sects  there  are  in  England.  Even  in  Germany  it  is  nearly 
as  bad.  My  own  study  of  religious  life  in  America  com- 
pels me  to  believe  that  your  people  are  not  very  firmly  or 
deeply  grounded  in  religion.  How  many  of  your  acquaint- 
ances believe,  without  question,  in  God,  a  personal  father, 
in  Christ,  His  only  begotten  Son,  sent  for  the  definite  pur- 
pose of  saving  the  world;  or  in  the  personal,  conscious  im- 
mortality of  the  soul  ?  I  will  not  ask  you  to  answer,  but  I 
will  make  bold  to  say  that  I  do  not  think  you  can  name  a 
hundred.  My  own  observation  in  England  and  America 
has  been  that  religion  is,  to  non-Russian  peoples,  merely  a 
respectable  habit,  a  method  of  civil  decency.  Now,  that  is 
not  religion  at  all,  and  this  process  is  going  to  go  on  and 
on  until,  no  matter  how  many  church  buildings  you  have 
and  how  many  preachers  and  all  that,  you  are  all  going  to 
arrive,  certainly  at  agnosticism,  and  very  probably  at  athe- 
ism itself." 

The  Russian  religionist  argues  that  some  place  in  the 

375 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

world  there  must  be,  not  only  a  Church,  but  a  people  who 
preserve  faith  in  its  purity,  fervor,  and  exaltation;  not 
only  a  Church,  but  a  people  who  are  really,  genuinely  re- 
ligious; and  that  when  the  rest  of  the  world,  weary  to 
death  of  the  vain  disputes  about  this  or  that  point  of  doc- 
trine or  dogma,  and  with  their  faith  in  God  Himself  de- 
stroyed, shall  cry  out,  like  a  child  in  darkness,  it  will  be 
Russia's  sacred  and  divinely  appointed  mission  to  give  to 
her  sister  nations  thus  benighted  an  example  of  a  people 
still  believing,  still  trustful,  still  religious;  a  people  in 
whose  temples  the  sacred  fire  has  never  been  permitted  to 
die  or  even  langmsh,  and  who  have  borne  forward  to  the 
blessing  of  those  who  have  submitted  the  cross  of  man's 
universal  Lord. 

The  Russian  of  education,  travel,  and  culture,  who  is 
still,  in  spite  of  these  things,  fervently  attached  to  the 
Greek  Orthodox  Church,  believes  most  earnestly  that 
there  is  no  other  Church  in  the  world  but  his  Church ;  and 
he  thinks,  with  all  possible  sincerity,  that  the  religion  of 
the  Russian  masses,  in  spite  of  all  of  its  superstitions,  which 
he  freely  admits,  is  far  better,  fuller  of  hope  for  the  future 
of  the  race,  than  what  he  calls  that  spiritual  license,  and 
what  we  call  religious  liberty  prevailing  in  other  countries. 
He  has  sincere  respect  for  the  Catholic  Church ;  although 
he  cordially  dislikes,  he  understands  its  purposes.  But 
for  Protestantism  he  has  no  respect  at  all.  Without 
going  into  detail  of  his  complaint  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
but  stating  the  largest  and  most  important  objection  he 
has  to  it,  it  is  that  even  the  Church  of  Rome  is  too  change- 
able, and  that  it  is  not  the  Church  of  any  one  organized, 
united,  consolidated  nationality;  not  the  religious  ex- 
pression of  any  one  single  people  as  sucJi,  and  a  part  of 
their  physical  and  civil  government  as  well  as  of  their 
spiritual    life. 

Nevertheless,  to  the  Russian,  the  Catholic  Church,  with 
its  superb  organization,  v/ith  its  permanence  in  compari- 
son with  the  ever-changing  Protestant  creeds,  is  an  in- 

376 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

telligent  and  tolerable  institution.  Also,  tlie  Russian  ap- 
proves of  the  Catholic  Church's  method  of  reaching  the 
soul  through  art — through  painting,  sculpture,  and  music; 
and  he  denounces  Protestantism  for  excluding  these 
simple  and  yet,  at  the  same  time,  as  he  thinks,  most 
refined  and  exalted  methods  of  appealing  to  the  in- 
stinctively religious  feeling  in  the  soul  of  man.  The 
birter  antagonism  of  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church,  as  such, 
to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  is  said  to  be  political,  the 
Catholic  Church  being  the  Church  to  which  the  people  of 
Poland  belong. 

Holy  Russia,  then,  looks  to  the  regeneration  of  the 
world  as  one  of  her  great,  if,  indeed,  not  her  very  greatest 
historic  mission.  Of  course,  even  the  most  fanatical  Rus- 
sian churchman  does  not  consider  this  a  thing  of  the  pres- 
ent day  or  the  present  decade  or  the  present  century.  In- 
deed, the  centuries,  to  the  thought  of  the  Russian  church- 
man (or,  for  that  matter,  the  Russian  statesman),  are 
small  matters.  "All  in  God's  own  time  "  is  the  motto  of 
the  Russian  peasant.  "If  the  mills  of  the  gods  grind 
slowly,"  to  us,  they  do  not  grind  slowly  to  the  Russian. 
He  sees  no  particular  reason  for  hurry.  Let  the  processes 
of  evil  and  good  work  out  their  distinct  results  naturally. 
Let  the  world's  age-old  battle  between  darkness  and  light 
not  be  waged  in  the  flash  of  a  spark  struck  from  the  meet- 
ing of  swords  of  single  combatants  in  some  portion  of  the 
universal  field.  It  is  a  gigantic  struggle  in  which  the  dec- 
ades are  but  moments  and  the  centiiries  but  hours.  In  the 
end,  light  will  conquer  darkness,  thinks  the  Russian;  and, 
to  his  niind,  the  Christian  faith  is  the  all-conquering  light 
and  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church  the  only  true  bearer  of 
that  sacred  torch. 

Such  is  the  Russian  religious  ideal.  There  are  strenu- 
ous dissenters  from  this  vif^w  in  Russia  itself.  The 
American  traveller  who  makes  acquaintances  among  the 
better  classes  will  find  this  Russian  ideal  ridiculed  and  the 
Church  itself  denounced.     It  is  doubted  whether  in  any 

377 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

place  in  the  world  there  is  more  bitter  resentment  against 
any  institution  than  there  is  against  the  Greek  Orthodox 
Church  within  Russia  itself,  and  that,  too,  among  men  and 
women  of  exceptional  culture;  or,  it  would  be  more  ac- 
curate to  say,  perhaps,  against  Russian  ecclesiastical 
policy  as  practised  by  Pobyedonostseff.  For  example: 
"It  is  an  outrage!"  exclaimed  a  Russian  of  excellent  at- 
tainments and  abilities — "it  is  a  shame  and  an  outrage,  I 
say,  that  I,  who  am  a  Protestant,  must  see  my  children 
members  of  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church  if  I  should  marry 
a  Russian  lady  who  is  a  member  of  that  Church,  no  mat- 
ter whether  she  or  I  or  the  children  themselves  wanted 
to  be  members  of  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church  or  not. 
How  shameful  that  we  have  not  the  liberty  of  our  own 
consciences!"  His  bitterness  towards  the  Procurator 
of  the  Holy  Synod  was  marked.  All  he  complained 
of  was  laid  upon  this  well-hated  statesman  of  the  Church. 
"Your  great  humanist  Lincoln  said,  quoting  the  Bible, 
that  'If  a  house  be  divided  against  itself,  that  house 
cannot  stand' — did  he  not?"  (You  will  be  surprised 
to  find  how  widely  read  some  of  these  Russians  are.) 
"Well,  then,  how  can  I  found  a  house?  How  can 
I  found  a  family?  I  do  not  believe  in  the  Greek  Church. 
Perhaps  a  Russian  whom  I  might  marry,  and  who 
was  a  member  of  it,  because  she  was  baptized  in  it 
and  because  her  parents  were  members  of  it,  might 
not  believe  in  it  either.  Perhaps  our  children  would 
revolt  against  it.  Yet  she  must  continue  a  member 
of  it,  and  our  children  must  be  members  of  it.  To 
us  Russians  that  is  an  awful  circumstance,  for  the  worst 
of  us  are  religious.  I  am  none  too  good,  but  I  my- 
self am  religious.  We  must  worship.  It  is  in  our 
blood.  Yet  here  would  be  the  spectacle  of  a  father  in 
one  Church  and  the  mother  and  children  in  another, 
with  no  possibility  of  joining  them,  unless  I  became 
an  apostate  to  my  Church  and  went  into  the  Russian 
Greek  Orthodox  Church.     Is  not  that  intolerable?" 

378 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

The  explanation  of  this  is  that  in  Russia,  "once 
an  orthodox,  always  an  orthodox."  The  children  of 
orthodox  parents  are  orthodox  by  reason  of  that  cir- 
cumstance, and  cannot  be  anything  else.  They  may 
become  infidels  in  belief — atheists  even;  nevertheless, 
they  are  members  of  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church. 
They  cannot  join  any  other.  Moreover,  the  children  even 
of  a  father  or  mother  who  is  a  member  of  the  Greek 
Orthodox  Church  are,  by  reason  of  that  circumstance, 
members  of  it,  are  baptized  in  it,  and,  most  important 
of  all,  that  fact  constitutes  a  part  of  their  civil  status; 
for,  be  it  remembered,  that  the  Russian  Greek  Or- 
thodox Church  and  the  Russian  autocratic  govern- 
ment are  woven  inextricably  into  each  other.  They 
are,  socially,  one.  The  Church  membership  is  a  part  of 
the  civil  life. 

The  above  conversation,  which  is  very  faithfully 
reproduced,  might  be  duplicated  by  scores,  even 
if  you  remained  for  but  a  brief  time  in  Russia, 
but  during  that  brief  time  are  so  fortunate  as  to 
have  your  associations  neither  marked  out,  on  the 
one  hand,  and  confined  to  the  Hnes  marked  out, 
or,  on  the  other,  if  you  get  acquainted  with  more  than 
one  class  of  people. 

Nevertheless,  and  taking  all  this  into  account,  it  is  be- 
lieved that  the  religious  ideal  here  described,  briefly  and 
in  rough  outhne,  is  the  instinctive  purpose  and  distant 
hope  of  the  Russians  as  a  people.  Among  the  educated 
classes  it  may  be  said  that  there  are  one  hundred  thou- 
sand, or  perhaps  two  hundred  thousand  (any  estimate  is 
a  mere  guess  and  practically  worthless),  who  dissent  from 
and  denounce  the  Russian  Greek  Church  and  its  members; 
among  the  people  it  might  be  that  there  are,  roughly 
speaking,  a  handful  of  millions  of  the  same  thinking;  but 
there  are  nearly  one  hundred  million  people  in  Russia 
proper,  and  in  all  his  dominions  more  than  one  hundred 
and  forty  million  souls  acknowledging  the  sovereignty  of 

379 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  Czar.  And  it  is  such  a  holy  Russia  that  holds 
this  astonishing  ideal,  an  ideal  entertained  vaguely, 
stupidly,  and  more  through  instinct  than  thought  by 
her  multiphed  millions,  but  an  ideal  most  vividly  held 
and  advocated  with  astonishing  force  and  plausibility 
by  some  of  the  most  highly  cultured  men  and  women 
in  the  empire. 

Now  for  the  second  great  thought  of  Russian  destiny. 
This  is  purely  civil.  Its  key,  too,  is  found  in  the  essays 
of  Pobyedonostseff,  whose  argument  is  condensed  above. 
But  do  not  make  the  mistake  of  thinking  that  Poby- 
edonostseff's  is  the  only  tongue  that  utters  this  thought — 
mountainous  and  cyclic,  we  must  admit,  no  matter  how 
distasteful  it  is  to  us.  This  ideal,  as  has  been  stated,  is 
the  belief  that  it  is  the  manifest  destiny  of  Russia  to  re- 
store order,  form,  law,  respect  for  authority  to  a  world 
whose  experiments  in  democracy  will  finally  land  it  in  a 
chaos  of  license  and  anarchy. 

Said  a  Russian  colonel  in  Manchuria:  "We  Russians 
expect  some  day  in  the  centuries  to  come  to  give  back  to 
mankind  civil  order,  now  disintegrating  in  all  demosratic 
countries  and  even  constitutional  monarchies. ' '  _  You  may 
hear  this  everywhere  from  the  lips  of  the  adherents  of 
autocracy. 

"It  is  strange  to  us  that  thinking  men  in  countries  like 
England,  France,  or  the  United  States,  and  even,  to  a 
lesser  extent,  in  Germany,  do  not  see  the  disintegrating 
effects  of  so-called  free  institutions,"  said  one  of  these 
frank,  fervent  believers  in  despotism.  "Of  course,"  he 
continued,  "  it  is  a  far  "cry  to  the  end  of  the  process,  but  the 
influences  are  at  work  very  rapidly.  No  doubt  it  will 
take  centuries,  but  'the  Terror'  of  France  is  the  natural 
beginning  of  a  democracy,  and  it  will  be  its  natural  ending. 
Can  you  not  see  yourself  that  disorder  is  constantly  in- 
creasing and  that  respect  for  law  is  constantly  diminish- 
ing? Of  course,  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  this  is  rapidly 
growing,  but  it  is  growing,  nevertheless.     It  is  a  natural 

380 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

thing,  but  it  is  like  other  vast  natural  movements;  it  is 
slow,  and,  I  suppose,  to  you,  who  are  in  the  midst  of  it, 
imperceptible.  You  are  like  a  man  on  a  raft,  who  does 
not  look  at  the  landmarks  which  are  passing,  but  looks 
only  at  the  floor  of  the  raft  and  what  is  going  on  on  board. 
There  are  the  same  dimensions,  the  same  floor  of  the  raft, 
the  same  utensils,  the  same  companions;  and  so,  refusing 
to  look  any  place  else  except  inwardly,  as  it  were,  you 
people  in  so-called  free  countries  fail  to  observe  whither 
you  are  tending.  But  the  rapids  are  below  you  just  the 
same,  and  you  are  hastening  to  them.  It  is  only  a  ques- 
tion of  time;  it  may  be  centuries,  bvit,  nevertheless,  only 
a  question  of  time,  when  you  will  be  caught  in  the  boiling 
waters,  your  raft  broken  up,  and  yourself  lost." 

So  it  is  the  ideal  of  the  Russian,  of  the  genuine  believer 
in  autocracy  (although  not  of  the  small  but,  never- 
theless, growing  class  who  are  in  favor  of  a  constitutional 
government  in  Russia  itself)  that  it  is  Russia's  high 
destiny  some  day,  centuries  hence,  to  be  the  only  nation, 
the  only  organized  people,  who  can  give  to  the  rest  of 
the  world  an  example  of  system,  order,  and  authority, 
and  all  of  the  repose  which  the  enthusiast  of  autocracy 
believes  can  only  come  from  these. 

It  will  be  very  difficult  for  us  Americans  to  grasp  this 
point  of  view,  but  it  is  all  the  more  important  to  grasp  it 
for  that  very  reason.  Otherwise,  you  shall  not  under- 
stand Russia.  Not  that  any  of  us  will  understand  Russia, 
even  if  we  do  grasp  the  meaning  of  her  civil  and  re- 
Hgious  ideals.  As  has  been  stated,  it  is  probable  that 
no  foreigner,  no  matter  how  long  there,  ever  wdll  com- 
prehend the  Russian  m.illions  or  the  Russian  mind. 
"There  are  more  than  a  score  of  different  beliefs  and 
separate  nationalities  now  under  the  Russian  colors," 
said  one  of  the  ablest  business-men  in  the  empire.  "I 
have  lived  here  all  my  life;  I  am  a  Russian  born;  I  have 
studied  our  people  with  care,  and  I  do  not  yet  understand 
them  myself,  and  do  not  expect  to." 

381 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

In  support  of  this  view,  and  in  contradiction  of  the  de- 
scription of  the  civil  and  reUgious  ideals  of  the  Russian 
people,  given  in  this  chapter,  is  the  fact  that  considerable 
numbers  of  Russian  subjects  are  Mohammedans,  some  few 
are  Buddhists,  and  still  others  hold  other  faiths,  not  only- 
dissimilar,  but  antagonistic  to  Christianity.  It  must  in 
fairness  also  be  stated  that  these  antagonistic  religions 
meet  with  no  interference  from  the  Russian  government. 
Indeed,  the  administration  does  not  even  appear  to  dis- 
approve of  them;  or,  if  the  government  does  disapprove 
of  them,  at  least  it  does  not  make  its  disapproval  appar- 
ent. More  than  this,  it  must  also  be  said  that  large  num- 
bers of  the  subjects  of  the  Czar  who  are  famous  for  their 
intense  devotion  to  their  imperial  master  are,  spiritually, 
the  followers  of  the  Prophet.  This  is  particularly  true  of 
the  Caucasian  Cossacks 

Not  only  is  there  no  interference  by  the  Russian  gov- 
ernment with  these  adherents  of  anti-Christian  religions, 
but  the  Russian  people — peasant,  merchant,  and  soldier 
— get  along  with  them  very  well  indeed.  Do  we  ever 
hear  of  any  bloody  fanatical  outbreak  between  Russian 
Christians  and  Russian  Mohammedans  where  these  ele- 
ments mingle?  It  is  a  significant  and  interesting  spec- 
tacle to  behold  in  Russian  Asia  orthodox  Slavs  from 
Russia  in  Europe  and  subjects  of  the  Czar  from  near  the 
Afghan  frontier  rendering  separately,  and  in  one  another's 
presence,  their  religious  devotions  without  the  slightest 
apparent  animosity,  and  to  see  the  disciples  of  these  hos- 
tile faiths  mingle  like  brothers  the  moment  their  daily 
worship  is  over,  and,  like  brothers,  live  together  day  after 
day. 

Mr.  Burton  Holmes,  the  American  traveller,  tells  of  the 
ceremonies  attending  the  administration  of  the  oath  to 
two  regiments  of  young  Russian  soldiers.  One  was  a 
Jewish  regiment;  its  services  were  conducted  by  a  Jewish 
rabbi.  The  other  was  a  Christian  regiment;  its  services 
were  conducted  by  a  Greek  Orthodox  Russian  priest. 

382 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Again,  when  a  Mohammedan  regiment  or  other  body  of 
troops  is  mustered  into  the  service,  the  necessary  reHgious 
ceremonies  are  performed  by  a  priest  of  their  own  faith. 
Indeed,  it  is  said  that  throughout  their  entire  active  duty 
in  the  army  the  spiritual  needs  of  the  soldiers  of  the  Czar 
are  administered  by  priests  of  their  own  faith.  These 
examples  might  be  multiplied  almost  indefinitely,  and  it 
must  be  admitted  that  they  do  not  tend  to  sustain  the 
theory  of  the  Russian  national  religious  ideal  presented 
in  this  chapter. 

This  contradictory  state  of  affairs  affords  another  para- 
dox of  Russian  statesmanship;  just  as,  in  her  economic 
policy,  the  active  encouragement  by  the  government  of 
centralized  factories,  and  the  paternal  care  and  foster- 
ing protection  given  to  her  "kustar  trades,"  is  a  para- 
dox of  statesmanship  in  the  domain  of  Russian  manu- 
facturing industr}^^.  Indeed,  all  through  Russian  life, 
Russian  administration,  and  Russian  history,  these  coun- 
ter-currents, flowing  side  by  side  in  opposite  directions, 
are  encountered.  But,  taking  them  all  into  account, 
it  is  believed  that  the  general  direction  and  flow  of 
the  great  stream  of  Russian  purpose  are  along  the  lines 
of  the  large  racial  ideals  of  the  Slav,  which  in  this  chapter 
we  have  been  dimly  following.  The  word  "dimly"  is 
used  advisedly.  We  might  even  better,  perhaps,  employ 
the  word  "vaguely,"  for  no  one,  least  of  all  the  casual 
observer,  can  perceive,  even  by  the  most  careful  scrutiny, 
anything  more  than  the  mountainous  proportions  of 
Russian  thought  and  purpose  in  the  twentieth  century, 
nor  faithfully  determine  more  than  the  general  tendencies 
of  the  glacier-like  movements  of  this  lethargic  and  multi- 
tudinous people. 

So  stupendous,  so  complex,  so  various  are  the  elements 
which  make  up  the  Russian  Empire;  so  remote  are  the 
springs  of  those  influences  which  mould  and  direct  Russian 
thought ;  so  elemental  and  enormous  is  the  evolution  going 
on  at  the  present  time ;  so  indescribable  is  the  whole  mighty 

3^3 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

mass  of  human  beings  ruled  by  the  Czar,  that  their  prog- 
ress might  be  compared  to  the  building  of  the  earth  it- 
self. It  is  slow;  it  reaches  back  through  the  centuries 
and  forward  through  the  centuries;  it  defies  analysis  and 
will  defy  analysis  until  the  long  process  is  completed. 
Certainly  no  human  mind  to-day,  Russian  or  non-Rus- 
sian, can  comprehend  it.  Perhaps  when  a  thousand 
years  have  passed  and  our  own  part  in  history  has  been 
performed,  and  Russia,  now  comparatively  resting  un- 
developed, shall  have  had  her  cue,  and  in  turn  advanced 
and  played  her  part  in  the  drama  of  the  centuries,  and  in 
turn  has  gone  off  the  stage — then,  it  may  be,  some  com- 
prehensive historical  analyst  may  be  able  to  read  the 
riddle  of  Russian  development,  work,  and  purposes  in 
the  world,  but  not  until  then.  Meanwhile,  the  best  that 
one  can  do  is  to  note  such  things  of  interest  as  one  may 
in  rapidly  passing. 


XXVI 

RUSSIAN  POINTS  OF  VIEW — RUSSIAN  OPINIONS  OF  AMERICAN 
INSTITUTIONS 

NOTHING  can  be  more  engaging  than  the  opinion 
held  by  frank  and  intelHgent  men  of  other  nations 
concerning  ours.  Conversely,  this  is,  as  every  traveller 
knows,  the  thing  first  inquired  of  by  foreigners  con- 
cerning themselves  and  their  country.  After  all,  human 
beings  are  very  much  alike,  it  appears.  "How  do  you 
like  our  town?"  is  the  familiar  question  that  every  one 
of  us  puts  to  the  visitor  within  our  gates.  Enlarge  this 
question  a  little  bit,  and  it  becomes:  "How  do  you  find 
our  country?"  "What  do  you  think  of  our  institutions?" 
"What  is  your  opinion  of  this  or  that  or  the  other  phase 
of  our  national  life?"  And  these,  too,  are  the  questions 
addressed  to  the  serious  and  earnest  foreign  visitor  to  most 
other  countries ;  and  of  no  spot  on  the  globe  is  this  more 
true  than  of  Russia. 

Driving  across  the  steppes  with  a  Russian  not  entirely 
satisfied  with  the  present  state  of  things  in  his  country ;  con- 
versing with  a  manufacturer  and  again  with  a  banker  and  at 
another  time  with  a  merchant ;  talking  with  men  highly  in- 
fluential in  Russian  affairs  and  shaping  the  present  policy 
of  the  Russian  people;  discussing  matters  of  interest  with 
a  Russian  administrator  in  the  Far  East;  talking  with  a 
group  of  civil  and  military  officers,  for  weeks  travelling 
companions  —  always  and  everywhere  your  opinion  of 
Russia,  of  the  Russian  people,  Russian  institutions,  Rus- 
sian government,  and  everything  else  Russian  is  eagerly 
asked  for. 

»s  385 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

And,  reciprocally,  their  opinions  of  America  are  given 
with  frankness  and  unreserve. 

Of  course  their  opinions  are  not  uniform.  But  it  is  the 
note  through  all  of  their  talk  which  is  dominant,  and  may 
be  said  to  be  the  major  chord  of  Russian  opinion  of  things 
American,  which  this  chapter  seeks  to  strike.  And  while 
their  disapproval  of  the  theory  of  republican  institutions 
applies  to  us  as  well  as  to  France  and  England  and  other 
free  countries,  while  their  rejection  of  the  whole  prac- 
tice and  doctrine  of  representative  institutions  is  distinct 
and  emphatic,  another  paradox  of  Russian  reasoning  is 
presented  in  their  sincere  admiration  of  American  char- 
acter, as  they  understand  it,  of  the  American  people  as 
a  nation,  and  of  American  achievements  in  every  line  of 
human  effort.  For  the  apparent  friendship  which  the  Rus- 
sian people  feel  for  the  American  people,  and  which  has 
again  and  again  been  observed  and  set  down  by  scores  of 
unprejudiced  American  travellers,  can  be  seen,  heard,  and 
felt  by  any  visitor  to  any  portion  of  the  empire  of  the  Czar. 
The  causes  for  this  seeming  Russian  predisposition  tow- 
ards the  American  people  have  already  been  presented  in 
the  language  of  an  eminent  Russian;  and  many  other  and 
minor  causes  have  aided  in  producing  the  same  result. 
And  no  just  reason  occurs  why  this  apparent  friendship 
is  not  genuine. 

These  minor  causes  cannot,  of  course,  be  even  enumer- 
ated here ;  but  one  may  be  mentioned  because  of  its  pleas- 
ing nature,  and  of  the  light  it  throws  upon  the  character 
of  the  Russian  people.  The  Czar  is  always  passionately 
beloved  by  the  great  body  of  his  subjects,  with  an  adoring 
affection  not  accorded  any  other  ruler.  Particularly  was 
this  true  of  Alexander  the  Liberator.  When  this  auto- 
cratic breaker  of  the  chains  of  Russian  slavery  escaped 
death  at  the  hands  of  the  assassin  in  1866  the  American 
Congress  passed  resolutions  congratulating  the  Emperor 
and  expressing  the  friendly  feeHng  of  the  American  people 
for  Russia.     This  resolution  was  sent  to  the  Czar  by 

336 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

our  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  Several  war-ships, 
among  which  were  two  of  our  monitors  fresh  from  their 
triumphant  engagements  in  our  civil  war  just  closed,  was 
sent  as  an  escort  of  the  representative  of  the  republic 
who  bore  this  friendly  message.  The  heart  of  Russia 
was  deeply  touched.  The  American  people's  message 
was  presented  to  the  Russian  throne,  it  is  true,  but  in 
effect  it  went  to  the  Russian  millions.  It  is  said  that  news 
of  this  act  of  tender  courtesy  travelled  with  lightning-like 
rapidity  from  mouth  to  mouth  throughout  all  Russia, 
even  to  the  poorest  country  village,  and  that  in  an  in- 
credibly short  time  there  was  not  a  cottage  in  the  whole 
empire  whose  inmates  were  not  talking  of  this  kindly  act 
of  the  great  American  people  across  the  sea.  This  inci- 
dent, comparatively  insignificant  in  itself,  meant,  to  the 
simple  Russian  peasant  mind,  that  the  American  people 
were  the  friends  of  the  Russian  people,  and  that  im- 
pression has  remained  among  the  common  people  of 
Russia  although  the  incident  which  caused  it  may  have 
been  forgotten.  This  circumstance  shows  the  peculiar 
sensitiveness  of  the  Slav  nature  to  kindly  sentiment.^ 

'  An  extract  from  the  report  of  Mr.  Fox,  who  bore  to  the  Czar 
the  resolution  of  Congress,  is  worth  reproducing: 

"All  that  I  have  written  myself,  and  all  that  was  written  for 
the  press  by  persons  far  more  capable  than  I  feel  myself  to  be,  to 
describe  the  manifestations  of  these  feelings,  fail  to  convey  any  ade- 
quate idea  of  the  enthusiasm  which  pervades  the  people  of  Russia 
towards  the  United  States,  and  their  sincere  wishes  for  the  con- 
tinued prosperity  and  power  of  our  country.  The  expression  of 
the  sympathy  felt  by  the  Emperor  for  this  country  in  its  great 
struggle  for  national  unity,  made  by  Prince  Gortchakoflf  in  r86i, 
when  several  of  the  great  powers  of  Europe  were  co-operating  in 
the  effort  to  destroy  it,  and  taking  measures  to  profit  by  its 
destruction,  was  gratefully  appreciated  by  the  government  and 
people  of  the  United  States  as  a  timely  and  effective  demonstra- 
tion in  our  behalf.  But  it  was  not  until  I  had  traversed  so  great 
a  part  of  the  Russian  Empire  and  witnessed  how  cordial  and  wide- 
spread, among  all  classes  in  that  powerful  country,  was  the  friend- 
ship for  America,  that  I  appreciated  the  practical  importance  of 

387 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

But  no  matter  what  the  causes,  the  friendly  feeling  of 
the  Russian  people  for  the  American  people  is  believed  to 
be  both  strong  and  gentiine.  And  that  fraternal  regard 
is  not  in  the  least  impaired  by  the  Russian  opinion  of  the 
theory  and  practice  of  our  institutions,  presented  in  this 
chapter,  harsh  and  intense  as  those  opinions  are. 

"  I  do  not  well  see  how  your  bureaucracy  can  be  defend- 
ed even  by  its  most  radical  apologists,"  said  the  American. 
By  bureaucracy,  as  everybody  knows,  is  meant  the  great 
system  of  bureaus  estabUshed  by  Peter  the  Great.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  Russia  is  governed  by  clerks  and  officials — 
hundreds  of  them,  thousands  of  them,  tens  of  thousands 
of  them.  Peter  the  Great  saw  that  his  government  must 
have  some  system.  It  could  not  be  mere  caprice  of  the 
imperial  will  all  the  time.  The  country  was  too  vast,  its 
population  was  too  great,  its  dominions  were  growing  and 
must  continue  to  grow  in  extent,  and  the  number  of  its 
people  were  increasing  and  destined  to  increase  for  cen- 
turies to  come.  So  the  constructive  Peter  classified  every- 
thing. 

He  established  bureaus  for  this  and  bureaus  for  that  and 
bureaus  for  the  other.  These  bureaus  were  grouped  under 

the  Emperor's  sympathy  in  its  bearings  upon  the  coiirse  of  our 
great  contest  and  in  its  influence  upon  the  conduct  of  other 
nations  towards  us. 

"The  crowds  that  gathered  around  us  at  every  social  meeting, 
singing  the  plaintive  national  songs;  the  flowers  presented  by  the 
hands  of  beauty  and  innocence;  the  numerous  presents  offered 
upon  all  suitable  occasions;  the  imperial  honor  granted  at  Kos- 
troma of  casting  down  their  garments  for  us  to  walk  upon;  the 
deep  feeling  which  the  great  mass  of  the  people  evinced  whenever 
the  name  of  our  country  was  mentioned,  and  the  very  many 
touching  incidents  which  such  sympathies  evoked,  were  not 
produced  by  curiosity  or  instigated  by  officials.  The  Russians 
have  been  familiar  with  royal  embassies  from  powerful  and 
magnificent  courts  for  many  centuries.  It  was  a  heart-impulse 
of  the  people  in  favor  of  our  country  which  occasioned  these  ex- 
traordinary demonstrations  towards  the  messenger  of  good-will, 
founded  on  their  instinctive  knowledge,  that  while  otu"  countries 

388 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

departments.  At  the  head  of  each  of  these  departments 
was  a  minister;  at  the  head  of  each  of  these  bureaus  was 
a  chief.  Under  these  were  sub-chiefs,  and  so  on  down 
to  the  humblest  clerk.  The  theory  was  that  this  whole 
service  was  to  be  a  merit  service.  Officials  were  to  be  ad- 
vanced from  the  very  lowest  grades  to  the  very  highest 
grades,  by  length  of  service  and  by  efficiency,  or,  rather, 
by  a  combination  of  the  two.  This  is  the  system  of 
government  which  prevails  in  Russia  to-day.  It  is  what 
we  would  call  a  perfect  "civil  service."  The  great  govern- 
mental machine  invented  by  Peter  the  Great,  perfect  in 
theory,  has  become  all-powerful  in  practice.  Every- 
thing in  Russia  must  be  referred  to  an  official,  and  this 
official  refers  it  to  the  next  higher  official,  and  this  official 
in  turn  refers  it  to  his  bureau,  and  there  it  runs  the  gaunt- 
let of  still  other  officials. 

It  is  said  that  the  result  is  that  there  is  not  a  depart- 
ment of  the  Russian  government  to-day  which  is  not 
behindhand  with  its  work.  The  affairs  of  the  Holy 
Synod,  for  instance,  are  reported  to  be  seriously  con- 
gested. So,  on  good  authority,  it  is  said  the  business 
of  nearly  every  other  department  is  too  great  for  the  best 

were  widely  separated  from  each  other  on  the  globe  and  in  forms 
of  government,  there  was  yet  a  community  of  interest  on  great 
points,  which  identified  the  friendships  of  the  people  with  patriot- 
ism itself." 

The  resolution  adopted  by  Congress  is  as  follows: 
"Resolved  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of 
the  United  States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled,  that  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States  of  America  has  learned  with  deep 
regret  the  attempt  made  upon  the  life  of  the  Emperor  of  Russia 
by  an  enemy  of  emancipation.  The  Congress  sends  greeting  to 
his  Imperial  Majesty  and  to  the  Russian  nation,  and  congratulates 
the  twenty  million  serfs  upon  the  providential  escape  from 
danger  of  the  sovereign  to  whose  head  and  heart  they  owe  the 
blessings  of  their  freedom. 

"Section  2.  And  be  it  further  resolved,  that  the  President  of 
the  United  States  be  requested  to  forward  a  copy  of  this  resolution 
to  the  Emperor  of  Russia." 

389 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

attention.  In  short,  the  affairs  of  the  empire  seem  to 
have  grown  beyond  the  capacity  of  the  legion  of  clerks 
who  attend  to  its  business.  It  could  hardly  fail  to  be  so, 
since  most  details  must  be  passed  on  to  St.  Petersburg. 
As  a  result,  it  is  said  that  thousands  of  matters  are  simply 
"pigeon-holed,"  as  we  say  here  in  America.  Many  thou- 
sands more  are  said  to  be  decided  without  adequate  or 
perhaps  without  any  knowledge.  And  to  the  American  ob- 
server it  appears  to  be  nothing  short  of  marvellous  that  the 
government  can  get  along  at  all.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
efhciency  of  the  government  is  amazing  when  one  considers 
the  minute  and  complex  organization  of  administration. 

So,  when  an  American's  opinion  is  asked,  these  con- 
spicuous facts  are  frankly  pointed  out.  It  was  suggested 
that  the  simple  expedient  of  even  a  small  degree  of  local 
self-government  would  relieve  the  centralized  power  of  the 
immense  amount  of  business  which  is  literally  breaking 
it  down,  as  foreign  critics  assert,  but  which  the  Russian 
emphatically  denies.  It  was  pointed  out  that  this  simple 
and  natural  process  would  create  initiative  on  the  part  of 
the  people;  and,  further,  that  the  people  of  each  locality, 
aided,  if  necessary,  or  even  directed  by  the  local  nobility, 
could  better  understand  their  needs  than  a  chain  of  offi- 
cials running  from  the  locality  clear  up  to  St.  Petersburg. 

And,  indeed,  there  is  a  considerable  and,  it  is  believed, 
a  growing  sentiment  in  Russia  along  this  line.  It  is  not 
so  many  years  ago  that  the  zemstvos  were  inaugurated 
in  Russia  by  Alexander  the  Liberator.  These  were,  in  a 
fair  degree,  machines  of  local  self-government.  They  were 
made  up  of  peasants,  land-owners,  and  nobles  elected  in 
various  ways  by  their  respective  classes.  At  the  head 
of  each  zemstvo  sat  as  its  president  the  marshal  of  the 
nobility  of  the  district,  appointed  by  the  Czar.  In  most 
of  these  cases  the  nobles,  and  especially  the  marshals  of 
the  nobility,  were  in  hearty  sympathy  with  the  people, 
instead  of  with  the  central  government  at  St.  Petersburg. 

This  sudden  development  of  self-government  in  the 

390 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

empire  of  the  Czar  did  not  long  continue  its  work  of 
popular  legislation.  Within  recent  years  there  be- 
gan to  be  curtailment  of  its  power  and  privileges.  This 
retrenchment  of  popular  self  -  government  in  Russia 
has  gone  on  with  ever-accelerating  speed,  until  at  the 
present  time  the  zemstvo  might  as  well  not  exist,  so 
far  as  any  real  self-government  is  concerned.  The  ten- 
dency steadily  is  to  place  all  of  this  power  again  in  the 
hands  of  the  Governor  of  the  district,  appointed  directly 
by  the  Czar  and  responsible  directly  to  him. 

At  this  reaction  there  are  loud  and  indignant  protests. 
Russian  noblemen,  who  want  local  and  popular  self- 
government,  are  very  outspoken  in  their  indignation, 
far  more  outspoken  than  the  people  themselves,  who 
seem  to  care  very  little  about  it.  Indeed,  one  reason 
given  for  curtailing  the  power  of  the  zemstvo  is  the 
difficulty  of  getting  the  people  to  vote  or  do  anything 
else  in  connection  with  it.  We  in  America,  who  are 
accustomed  to  believe  that  nobody  speaks  his  mind  in 
Russia,  will  find  it  hard  to  understand  that  the  Russian 
country  gentleman  will  talk  with  about  the  same  emphasis 
against  the  recentralization  of  governmental  power  in  St. 
Petersburg  as  the  American  politician  will  here  in  Amer- 
ica against  the  administration  with  which  he  is  dissatis- 
fied. And  these  expressions  of  dissent  and  dissatisfaction 
are  by  no  means  concealed. 

It  must  not  be  inferred  from  the  reaction  from  the 
local  self  -  government  of  the  zemstvo  towards  auto- 
cratic recentralization  of  power  that  there  is  no  self- 
government  in  Russia  at  all.  On  the  contrary,  any 
Slavophile  will  assure  you  that  the  only  real  democ- 
racy on  earth  is  found  in  the  peculiar  Russian  village,  or, 
as  the  Russian  word  is,  "mir."  This  is  the  famous  Russian 
commune.  As  has  been  stated,  all  Russian  peasants  live  in 
villages.  These  villages  are  self-governing,  so  far  as  their 
local  affairs  are  concerned,  with  the  one  exception  of  fix- 
ing the  imperial  taxes.     As  has  been  noted,  the  land  be- 

391 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

longing  to  the  peasants  is  held  by  them  in  common.  This 
land  is  allotted  among  the  peasants,  not  by  the  govern- 
ment but  by  the  peasants  themselves,  and  not  at  stated 
intervals  but  whenever  necessary,  and  not  to  the  indi- 
vidual members  of  the  commune,  but  to  the  families.  The 
unit  in  the  Russian  village  is  the  family.  The  unit  with 
which  the  government  deal?  is  the  village.  The  heads  of 
families  in  these  villages  get  together  at  a  call  from  the 
elder.  This  elder  is  elected  by  viva  voce  vote.  These 
meetings  thus  called  divide  the  land  among  the  various 
families. 

There  is  for  this  no  hard-and-fast  rule.  These  assem- 
blages simply  talk  over  the  matter.  They  debate  among 
themselves  what  is  right  and  what  is  wrong,  what  is  just 
and  what  is  unjust,  and  they  allot  the  land  accordingly. 
In  these  meetings  the  women  who  happen  to  be  at  the 
head  of  the  household — as,  for  instance,  the  widow  of  a 
deceased  peasant — participate  and  do  as  much  talking  as 
the  men. 

These  little  village  communes  also  pass  upon  and  settle 
many  of  the  minor  and  petty  offences  committed  by  their 
members.  The  community  exercises  a  power  over  each 
member  of  it  more  autocratic  than  that  exercised  by  the 
Czar  himself  over  his  individual  subjects.  For  example, 
each  member  is  compelled  to  do  his  fair  part  of  the  work. 
He  must  pay  the  portion  of  the  taxes  which  the  commune 
or  village  allots  to  him.  The  government  itself  collects 
the  tax  from  the  commune  and  not  from  the  individual. 
The  commune  says  how  much  of  the  tax  each  family  shall 
pay.  If  the  head  of  any  family  is  in  arrears  of  his  taxes 
the  commune  will  not  let  him  have  a  passport,  and  with- 
out a  passport  the  government  will  not  let  him  leave  the 
village.  The  same  is  true  of  the  son  or  daughter  of  a 
family,  except,  we  are  informed,  that  in  these  cases,  while 
the  commune  itself  is  supposed  to  deny  or  grant  the 
passport,  in  reality  it  is  the  family  to  which  the  son  or 
daughter  belongs  who  determines  it. 

392 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Of  course,  such  a  system  as  this  would  not  work  with 
us  at  all;  but  the  Russian  peasant  is  a  peculiar  human 
being.  He  is  exceedingly  good-natured  and  reasonable. 
In  their  meetings,  which,  weather  permitting,  are  usually 
in  the  open,  under  the  trees,  and  which  may  last  for  a  few 
hours  or  several  days,  there  is  merely  a  crystallization  of 
opinions.  Then  a  vote  is  taken.  The  minority  fall  in 
with  the  majority.  Everybody  "lines  up,"  to  use  a 
familiar  American  political  expression.  Grumbling  there 
usually  is,  but  it  is  confined  to  the  person  against  whom 
the  decision  runs;  and  everybody  laughs  and  jokes  the 
grumbler  out  of  face,  and  so  everything  goes  along  very 
smoothly.  It  must  be  added  that  the  elder  (starosta) 
elected  by  these  villagers  does  not  exercise  any  influence 
over  the  decisions  of  his  fellows.  Indeed,  he  does  not 
attempt  to.  If  he  did,  he  would  be  put  down  by  the  rest. 
Nobody  wants  to  be  elder.  There  is  no  pay  in  it,  and  a 
great  deal  of  responsibility;  but  when  anybody  is  elected, 
there  is  no  getting  out  of  it  as  a  usual  thing.  And  all 
this,  declares  the  Slavophile,  is  the  only  real  self-govern- 
ment in  the  world. 

A  number  of  these  villages  are  combined  into  a  larger 
kind  of  a  tribunal,  which  settles  more  important  disputes 
and  adjudges  more  important  crimes.  Again,  a  number 
of  these  are  combined  together  in  what  has  already  been 
referred  to  as  the  zemstvo,  or  district  legislative  as- 
sembly. 

To  return  now,  after  these  modifications,  to  the  great 
burden  of  bureaucracy  which  the  American  traveller, 
when  asked  for  an  opinion,  always  criticises. 

"Of  course,  our  system  of  bureaus  and  government  by 
them,  or  rather  through  them,  has  its  defects.  But  what 
government  has  not?"  answered  a  Russian  civil  officer. 
"Take  your  own  American  government,  for  example,"  he 
continued.  "To  us  it  appears  most  irrational.  For  in- 
stance, there  is  an  uprising  against  some  vicious  element, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  Italians  some  years  ago  at  New 

393 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Orleans."  (You  will  find  the  Russian  educated  man 
pretty  well  up  on  most  of  the  things  going  on  in  the  United 
States  and  elsewhere  in  the  world.)  "It  looked  absurd 
to  all  Europe,  and  especially  us  Russians,  that,  while  your 
national  government  admitted  the  offence,  it  could  do 
nothing,  because  a  State  government  within  your  national 
government  alone  was  responsible.  That  looks  to  us 
Russians  like  a  contradiction  in  terms.  How,  we  ask, 
can  there  be  a  government  which  is  sovereign  over  its 
whole  territory  and  yet  not  responsible  for  what  is  done 
within  that  territory?" 

"We  will  have  our  meals  at  the  following  hours,"  said 
General  Deitrich,  on  his  way  to  take  command  of  the 
"  Russian  railway -guards  "  (in  reality,  picked  Russian  sol- 
diers) in  Manchuria.  "You  see,  we  do  not  permit  any 
republic  over  here,  not  even  on  our  boats,"  said  he, 
laughing  pleasantly. 

Regretful  comment  on  parliamentary  institutions  is  not 
uncommon.  Below  is  given  a  Russian's  criticism  upon 
our  American  form  of  government,  which  can  be  heard 
in  Russia  from  the  lips  of  the  highly  educated  Russians, 
who  also  happen  to  be  apologists  for  and  advocates  of 
autocracy.  It  is  useful  only  as  showing  the  opinions  of 
such  Russians  of  all  liberal  government  and  their  pro- 
found misunderstanding  of  our  republic. 

"I  am  very  free  to  admit  almost  all  of  your  criticism 
of  our  Tchinovnic  (clerk)  system,"  said  he.  "Of  course, 
it  is  cumbersome,  and  of  course  business  gets  congested. 
At  the  same  time,  I  do  not  think  it  is  much  more  congested 
than  it  is  in  the  English  Parliament,  where  I  have  myself 
listened  to  half  a  day  consumed  by  a  fruitless  debate 
over  some  trivial  local  matter  affecting  some  town  in 
Scotland."  (Any  one  who  has  spent  a  day  in  the  British 
House  of  Commons  has  witnessed  the  same  thing. )  ' '  Then, 
too,  you  must  take  into  account  the  difference  in  race. 
We  are  Slav;  do  not  forget  that.  We  are  devoted  to 
form.     We  are  not  so  much  accustomed  to  take  orders 

394 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

as  we  are  under  a  mental,  a  moral,  and  physical — racial — 
necessity  to  take  orders." 

And  he  referred  to  the  fact  that  when  the  Russian 
people  had  literally  thrown  the  Czar  headlong  from  the 
throne,  and  had  the  government  in  their  hands  to  do  with 
it  what  they  liked,  they  simply  crowned  another  Czar 
and  went  about  their  business  as  before. 

"But  now  consider  your  own  institutions,"  he  contin- 
ued. "The  educated  and  instructed  Russian  always 
laughs  when  he  hears  you  Americans  boast  of  your  free 
self-government.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  do  you  have  as 
much  self-government  as  we  do?  From  the  best  infor- 
mation I  have  been  able  to  obtain,  both  from  reading  and 
from  travel,  the  impression  received  is  that  you  are  gov- 
erned by  parties.  Your  parties  nominate  your  ticket — do 
they  not  ? — and  set  forth  certain  declarations  in  what  you 
call  a  platform.  Then  everybody  belonging  to  that  party 
votes  for  it,  and  you  call  that  self-government.  It  does 
not  look  to  me  very  much  like  self-government;  but  con- 
ceding that  there  is  a  measure  of  self-government  in  it  in 
theory,  is  it  so  in  practice? 

"We  understand  that  your  parties  are  really  ruled  by 
a  few  powerful  politicians,  who  give  up  their  entire  time 
and  energy  to  that  business.  The  delegates  to  American 
political  conventions,  which  are  supposed,  in  theory,  to  be 
selected  by  the  people,  are  usually  selected,  as  we  under- 
stand it,  by  a  few  local  politicians  who  are  powerful  in 
their  community,  and  who  do  the  bidding  of  other  power- 
ful politicians  higher  up.  Furthermore,  we  are  informed 
that  these  men  are  not  powerful  by  reason  of  pre-eminent 
virtue  or  culture  or  patriotism,  but  by  skilful  use  of  cor- 
rupt methods.  Men  who  can  be  depended  upon  to  do  the 
bidding  of  these  politicians  are  placed  on  the  committees 
which  prepare  your  platforms  of  principles.  In  short,  in 
your  so-called  democratic  government  everything  is  'cut 
and  dried,'  as  I  heard  the  expression  used  in  England. 
Your  conventions  of  delegates,  which  are  supposed  to  be 

395 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

elected  by  the  people,  but  which,  in  reality,  are  selected, 
as  I  have  indicated,  accept  the  platform  just  as  it  is  pre- 
sented to  them  by  the  few  who  constitute  this  committee, 
and  this  committee  receives  its  instructions  from  the  big 
politician  who  runs  the  whole  thing. 

"Now,  we  Russians  do  not  see  very  much  difference  be- 
tween this  and  an  autocratic  form  of  government,  except 
that  in  the  case  of  the  Czar's  government  the  sovereign  is 
above  all  reward  or  the  hope  of  it,  above  all  fear  of  dis- 
placement, and  is  forced  by  his  conscience  and  the  public 
opinion  of  the  nation,  and  his  own  desire  to  do  the  best  he 
can  for  our  people,  and  perhaps,  above  all,  by  his  wish  to 
appear  well  in  history,  and  hand  his  government  down  to 
his  son  in  a  better  condition  than  it  was  when  he  took  it 
up;  whereas,  with  your  political  czars,  they  last  for  but  a 
short  time,  and  are  influenced  more  or  less  by  their  own 
selfish  designs. 

"Then,  again,"  continued  the  Russian  critic  of  our  in- 
stitutions, in  giving  this  curious  Russian  point  of  view, 
"suppose  your  government  is  run  exactly  as  it  is  sup- 
posed, in  theory,  to  be  run.  Consider  the  immense  waste 
of  energy  it  entails.  Suppose  your  public  men  to  be 
unselfish  and  patriotic  to  an  ideal  degree.  Well,  after 
they  have  proposed  certain  laws  or  declared  certain  prin- 
ciples, they  must  waste  the  greater  part  of  their  energy 
going  about  the  country  in  your  campaigns  speaking  to  the 
people.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  they  go  about  the  country 
speaking  not  to  the  people  but  to  their  partisans.  The 
point  that  I  am  now  making  is  that  the  very  best  that  is 
in  them  is  given,  not  to  the  study  of  public  questions,  not 
to  the  grave  consideration  of  laws,  but  to  haranguing 
crowds. 

"After  this  expenditure  of  energy,  and  to  no  great  pur- 
pose cither,  your  public  men  have  very  little  real  strength 
left  for  the  actual  work  of  the  nation.  So  in  the  nation  or 
the  State,  or  even  the  city,  the  result  of  this  is  that  your 
laws  are  not  carefully  drawn,  are  almost  certain  to  be  re- 

396 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

pealed,  etc.  Another  result  is  that  your  government,  take 
it  altogether,  is  by  far  and  away  the  most  expensive  in  the 
world.  I  mean  if  you  take  the  expense  of  your  city  and 
other  municipal  governments,  your  State  government,  and 
your  national  government,  that  you  Americans  spend  far 
more  of  what  your  producers  create  than  any  other  gov- 
ernment in  the  world.  As  I  have  said,  it  all  ends  in  your 
not  governing  yourselves  at  all.  To  us  Russians  it  ap- 
pears that  your  boasted  self-government  is  merely  a  gov- 
ernment by  cliques. 

"Of  course,  I  admit  that  you  sometimes  have  great  ex- 
ceptions; sometimes,  doubtless,  you  develop  public  men  of 
such  pre-eminent  ability  that  they  command  the  attention 
and  respect  of  your  people  themselves.  No  doubt,  such 
men,  when  such  exceptions  are  found,  are  more  powerful 
than  the  temporary  and  corrupt  cliques  of  politicians 
who  usually  dominate  your  public  affairs.  I  am  willing 
to  admit  that  when  such  a  man  is  encountered  in  Amer- 
ican public  life  the  cliques  are  unable  to  overthrow  him, 
and  will  not  try  to  do  so,  because  so  great  is  the  hold  of 
such  a  man  on  your  masses  that  the  people  would  turn  and 
destroy  your  little  governing  groups  of  politicians  who 
thus  offended  them.  It  seems  to  us  Russians  that  such 
men  occasionally  appearing  in  American  public  life  are 
about  the  only  hope  you  have  of  being  saved  from  your- 
selves. Your  Washingtons  and  your  Lincolns  are,  after  all, 
your  salvation ;  and  so,  in  spite  of  your  theories  of  popular 
government,  you  get  back,  in  the  end,  to  the  principle  of 
autocracy  disguised  under  the  name  and  character  of  some 
popular  hero  who  is  worthy  of  and  receives  the  support 
and  affection  of  your  masses. 

"Then,  again,  take  it  in  diplomacy.  It  appears  to  us 
Russians,  and  indeed  to  most  Europeans,  that  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  American  diplomacy,  and  cannot  be.  This 
year  you  have  one  political  party  in  power,  and  that  party 
pursues  a  certain  foreign  policy.  The  next  year,  perhaps, 
the  opposing  political  party  gets  into  power,  and  that  suc- 

397 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

ceeding  administration,  which  may  have  been  elected 
solely  on  account  of  some  internal  policy  and  not  at  all 
with  reference  to  the  foreign  policy  pursued  by  the  party 
it  succeeded,  nevertheless  reverses  the  whole  foreign  pol- 
icy of  your  nation,  or  tries  to  do  so.  It  even  turns  out  of 
ofhce  your  nation's  ambassadors  all  over  the  world,  no 
matter  how  able  those  ambassadors  are  and  no  matter 
what  serious  and  delicate  problems  any  ambassador  may 
have  on  his  hands.  It  may  be  that  he  is  in  the  very  midst 
of  an  important  and  far-reaching  negotiation  which  all 
the  other  statesmen  of  the  world  regard  as  highly  beneficial 
to  your  nation.  No  matter;  out  he  goes.  The  reason  is 
that  he  does  not  belong  to  the  party  that  has  come  into 
power. 

"Now,  to  us  Russians  that  seems  childish.  Then,  again, 
your  ambassador  may  only  have  begun  to  get  acquainted 
with  the  country  to  which  he  is  accredited.  In  reality, 
he  may  only  have  begun  to  master  the  usages  and  prac- 
tices which  might  make  him  valuable  at  the  court  to 
which  he  is  sent.  Again  no  matter;  out  he  goes;  and  just 
because  he  belongs  to  the  unsuccessful  political  party 
which,  as  I  say,  may  have  come  into  power  purely  on 
account  of  some  exclusively  internal  policy  affecting  your 
country  and  your  country  alone.  This  silly  practice  ex- 
tends even  to  your  consuls  at  all  important  points;  and, 
strangest  of  all,  the  only  consuls  you  keep  in  office,  when 
there  is  a  change  of  administration,  are  those  at  unim- 
portant points.  To  us  Russians  this  practice  of  your 
American  Republic  seems  almost  insane;  and  yet  it  is  a 
part  of  what  you  call  your  free  institutions. 

"Or  take  the  question  of  taxes.  Our  government  is 
criticised  because  the  people  have  no  part  in  saying  how 
much  tares  they  shall  pay.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  of 
course,  this  is  not  true  in  local  affairs,  although  it  is  true 
in  imperial  affairs.  But  suppose  it  were  true  even  in 
municipal  affairs  ?  Where  is  the  difference  between  your 
democratic  form  of  government  as  it  is  practised  in  your 

398 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

dties  and  our  autocratic  form  of  government  as  it  is 
practised  in  Russia?  How  many  men  who  really  pay 
the  taxes  of  New  York  have,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  very 
much  to  say  about  it  ?  Some  of  our  statesmen  have  made 
a  practical  study  of  the  American  cities  as  they  have  of 
the  municipal  governments  of  all  other  countries,  in  order 
to  see  where  we  could  improve  conditions  here,  and  we 
have  been  astonished  to  find  that  in  the  matter  of  at  least 
two  of  your  great  cities  the  whole  question  of  taxes  and 
municipal  administration  is  said  to  be  determined  by 
two  or  three  men,  sometimes  only  one  man  at  the  head 
of  some  political  organization. 

"Now,  referring  again  to  the  exhaustion  of  your  public 
men  in  what  is  really  idle  harrangue  on  the  stump,  com- 
pare them  with  our  Russian  statesmen.  Of  course,  our 
statesmen  have  their  failings,  too,  and  very  great  ones. 
No  Russian  claims  that  his  public  men  are  perfect.  But, 
nevertheless,  they  have  all  their  time  and  all  their  energy 
to  devote  to  the  real  work  of  the  empire.  Your  public 
men,  on  the  contrary,  are  compelled  to  dissipate  by  far 
the  greater  part  of  their  time  and  energy  in  the  work 
of  your  almost  continuous  elections.  It  is  strange  to  us 
that  you  Americans  do  not  awaken  to  the  enormous  ex- 
penditure of  energy  in  your  numerous  campaigns.  There 
is  always  some  campaign  or  other  on  hand.  You  are 
always  electing  somebody  to  something.  It  entails  a  loss 
of  vital  power  which,  it  seems  to  us,  might  be  better  given 
to  the  real  service  of  the  nation." 

When  reminded  of  our  miraculous  progress  in  com- 
parison with  the  snail-like  progress  of  Russia,  the  Russian 
critic  replied :  "All  that  is  conceded,  but  yet  your  progress 
has  not  been  greater  than  ours  since  we  started  to  adopt 
modern  methods.  And,  besides,  can  anybody  say  what 
the  end  of  your  apparent  'progress'  is  going  to  be?  May 
it  not  be  that  you  are  exhausting  yourself  and  your  re- 
sources, like  a  man  who  gets  false  energy  out  of  stimu- 
lants.    I  cannot  admit,"  said  he,  "that  our  respective 

399 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

experiments  have  gone  far  enough  for  anybody  to  give  a 
just  opinion  of  the  comparative  merits  or  demerits  of 
American  and  Russian  so-called  progress." 

Many  pages  of  similar  opinions  might  be  given  here, 
but  the  above  is  typical  and  fairly  illustrative  of  the 
autocratic  Russian  point  of  view.  Of  course,  it  is  not 
said  that  this  is  the  unanimous  Russian  conclusion.  On 
the  contrary,  very  able  Russians  hold  to  the  opposite 
opinion;  but  the  above  is  believed  to  be  a  fair  presenta- 
tion of  the  prevailing  Russian  thought.  The  best  way  to 
learn  to  appreciate  our  American  institutions  is  to  visit 
other  lands  and  find  how  immeasurably  better  off  we 
Americans  are  than  any  other  people.  Go  about  the 
world  and  you  will  come  to  love  the  United  States  more 
than  ever. 


XXVII 

THINGS  CASUALLY  OBSERVED 

ALL  Russian  stores  and  shops,  of  course,  have  "signs," 
J-\  just  as  American  stores  and  shops  have.  But  the 
Russian  signs  are  peculiar.  Instead  of  having  the  word 
"dry-goods"  or  "meat  market"  or  what  not  on  their 
signs,  there  are,  instead,  pictures  of  what  the  shop  or  store 
has  to  selL  Here  is  one  that  has  pictures  of  fruits — very 
well,  that  is  a  fruit  store.  Another  picture  has  a  quarter 
of  beef,  or  sausages  and  the  like — that  is  a  meat  store. 
You  cannot  fail  to  find  a  dry -goods  establishment,  be- 
cause a  picture  of  its  wares  is  conspicuously  placed  in 
front  of  it.  The  reason  for  this  you  perhaps  will  be  told, 
is  that  the  people  cannot  read,  but  that  they  do  under- 
stand the  pictures.  This  is  not  the  exact  truth,  but  it  is 
a  suggestion  of  the  truth.  It  was  the  original  reason  for 
making  the  pictures  rather  than  written  signs,  but  that 
reason  has  to  a  considerable  degree  now  passed  away. 

This  method  of  sign-painting  is  now  continued  more 
largely  as  a  matter  of  custom  than  of  necessity ;  for  be  it 
again  repeated,  that  of  all  the  people  in  the  world,  except 
perhaps  the  Asiatics,  those  most  devoted  to  custom  are 
the  Russians.  No  doubt  it  is  true  also  that  large  num- 
bers of  people,  particularly  the  older  members  of  the 
poorer  classes,  cannot  yet  read  and  write,  and  the  picture 
signs  may  be  continued  for  their  convenience.  Neverthe- 
less, in  cities  like  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow  the  change 
from  picture  signs  to  written  signs  is  rapidly  going  on ;  and 
in  the  two  or  three  cities  of  this  class  the  pictures  are  usu- 
ally accompanied  by  the  written  words.  Also,  especially 
36  401 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

in  St.  Petersburg,  the  pictures  are  being  dropped  from 
the  signs  entirely.  This  indicates  a  rapid  advance  of 
literacy,  because  it  is  being  done  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  much  illiteracy  remains,  and  in  spite  of  the  more 
powerful  influence  of  custom. 

Do  not  imagine  that  you  cannot  get  anything  you  want 
in  a  Russian  city  as  readily  as  you  can  in  an  American 
city.  The  fact  has  already  been  noted  that  even  in  Si- 
berian cities  any  possible  thing  you  desire  may  be  pur- 
chased in  their  department  stores.  Of  course,  the  same 
is  true  in  the  larger  Russian  cities,  although  it  is  a  singular 
fact  that  the  idea  of  the  department  store  has  not  devel- 
oped in  Russia  itself  as  it  has  in  Siberia.  Whereas  the 
tendency  in  Siberia,  and  even  in  Manchuria,  is  towards 
the  department-store  principle,  in  Russia  the  shop  prin- 
ciple is  still  dominant. 

In  Moscow  there  is  an  arcade  which,  it  is  said,  is  not 
surpassed  by  any  similar  arrangement  in  the  world.  In 
this  arcade  are  shops  which  sell  every  conceivable  thing 
except  meats  and  the  like.  They  are  similar  to  the  shops 
in  the  arcade  in  Cleveland,  Ohio.  Residents  of  Moscow 
also  boast  that  this  Muscovite  metropolis  has  the  great- 
est and  best-equipped  apothecary  establishment  in  the 
world.  Careful  inspection  of  this  immense  drug-store 
makes  the  visitor  believe  that  this  claim  is  perhaps  not 
an  idle  one.  The  singular  circumstance  should  be  noted 
that  in  chemistry  and  the  science  of  medicine  Russia 
(always  comparatively  speaking)  has  made  more  rapid 
progress  within  the  last  half  -  century  than  any  sister 
nation.  Many  reasons  are  assigned  for  this,  and  perhaps 
the  most  plausible  is  that,  shut  off  from  poHtical  activity, 
the  vigorous  and  aggressive  minds  of  the  empire  devote 
their  energies  instead  to  science  in  its  various  forms,  and 
especially  to  medicine.  It  is  said  that  even  Vienna  can- 
not boast  of  as  perfect  a  medical  college  as  exists  in  one 
of  the  universities  of  Russia. 

The  points  of  similarity  between  Russian  and  Chinese 

402 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

customs  are  so  many  that  a  very  entertaining  little  vol- 
ume might  be  written  comparing  them.  It  has  already 
been  noted  that  the  Russians,  like  the  Chinese,  live,  as  a 
usual  thing,  in  little  clumps  of  houses — small,  rural  com- 
munities called  villages.  In  the  course  of  an  inspection 
of  Chinese  agricultural  districts,  the  farmers  were  always 
found  living  with  their  families  in  these  little  villages. 
The  same  is  universally  true  in  Russia.  But  since 
we  are  speaking  of  medicine,  let  us  note  another  strange 
similarity — the  practice  concerning  the  paying  for  med- 
ical services.  In  China,  as  everybody  knows,  the  phy- 
sician is  paid  as  long  as  the  employer  is  in  good  health; 
the  doctor's  pay  ceases  when  his  employer  gets  siok, 
and  does  not  begin  again  until  he  recovers.  Of  course, 
this  is  not  true  in  Russia,  but  there  is  an  analogy,  never- 
theless. For  example,  if  you  stay  in  Russia  any  length 
of  time,  and  are  too  active  in  your  investigations,  as 
the  American  is  sure  to  be,  you  will,  of  course,  get  sick 
more  or  less  seriously.  You  must  have  a  physician. 
Usually  3"0u  find  him  an  excellent  doctor.  He  goes 
about  his  business  without  loss  of  time,  and  you  recover 
as  quickly  as  you  would  under  the  care  of  his  American 
professional  brother.  Then  you  ask  what  the  fee  is. 
But  there  is  no  fee.  "Nothing  at  all,"  the  Russian  doctor 
will  say  to  you,  or  "What  you  like."  But  if  some  Rus- 
sian friend  has  recommended  this  physician  to  you,  he 
will  tell  you  beforehand  that  nobody  in  Russia  ever 
asks  a  physician  for  the  amount  of  his  bill.  There  is  a 
sort  of  universal  understanding  that  a  gentleman  is  to 
pay  his  doctor  a  certain  amount,  and  the  physician 
depends  upon  his  patient's  generosity  and  sense  of  the 
proprieties  for  adequate  compensation. 

It  is  a  curious  custom.  The  Slavophile  will  assure  you 
that  it  is  a  custom  peculiarly  Slav,  and  that  it  has  its 
origin,  like  most  Russian  customs,  in  humanitarianism  on 
the  part  of  the  doctor  and  graciousness  on  the  part  of  the 
patient.     The  Slavophile's  theory-  is  that  the  custom  orig- 

403 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

inated  in  the  desire  of  the  physician  to  give  his  healing 
services  freely  to  the  afflicted,  and  with  no  thought  of  pay. 
"It  is  repugnant  to  the  Russian  mind,"  said  a  Russian 
friend,  "that  the  physician  engaged  in  the  almost  holy 
calling  of  alleviating  pain,  of  curing  human  ills,  of  saving 
human  life,  should  put  a  price  upon  his  services.  You 
might  as  well  expect  a  drowning  man,  in  a  shipwreck,  who 
is  saved  by  the  efforts  of  life-savers,  who  risked  their  own 
lives  in  the  attempt,  to  say  to  his  rescuers,  'What  is  your 
fee  for  this?'  " 

Another  explanation  was  that  the  practice  has  its  origin, 
as  do  so  many  Russian  customs,  in  the  Scripture,  and  that 
the  healing  of  the  afflicted  by  the  Saviour,  without  money 
and  without  price,  was  the  sacred  ideal  out  of  which  grew 
this  strange  modern  custom.  "The  Good  Samaritan  is 
at  the  bottom  of  it,"  said  a  Russian  lady.  Of  course, 
nobody  knows  what  the  first  reason  of  this  practice  is,  but 
it  exists.  Russian  doctors  seem  to  get  along  very  well, 
for  the  Russian  patient  who  is  cured  is  a  very  generous 
man.  Indeed,  generosity  is  a  Russian  trait,  especially 
among  themselves.  No  doubt  is  here  expressed  of  their 
sharpness  in  money  matters,  of  the  hard  bargains  they 
drive,  or  even  that  there  may  be  corruption  in  business  and 
governmental  life,  on  stories  of  which  the  English-speak- 
ing world  has  been  for  a  century  fed.  But  without  af- 
firming or  denying  this,  it  is,  nevertheless,  true  that  the 
Russian  nature  is  a  peculiarly  generous  one. 

The  Russian  peasant's  hospitality,  for  example,  reminds 
one  of  the  stories  which  we  Americans  love  to  hear  of 
the  hospitality  of  our  forefathers  when  they  were  settlers 
in  the  wilderness.  A  certain  Russian  nobleman  intro- 
duced an  American  to  the  father,  the  head  of  the  fam- 
ily, before  whose  cottage,  or  hut,  the  troika  stopped  on 
entering  the  village.  Immediately,  of  course,  the  peas- 
ant father  invited  both  gentlemen  into  his  very  humble 
home.  There  the  most  simple  and,  because  simple,  charm- 
ing manners  were  found.     The  coarse  fare  of  the  family 

404 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

^as  laid  before  their  guests.  There  was  no  apology  about 
it.  The  women  were  very  glad  to  show  their  guests  how 
they  wove  the  family  clothing  on  the  rude  loom,  etc. 

For  this  courtesy  a  piece  of  money  was  offered  the  head 
of  the  household.  He  received  it  without  a  word,  but 
with  a  look  of  grave  surprise.  When  this  small  Russian 
home  had  been  left,  the  Russian  nobleman  said:  "Oh,  I 
forgot  to  tell  you  never  to  give  a  Russian  peasant  or  any 
member  of  his  family  anything  when  he  invites  you  into 
his  home.  He  does  not  expect  it,  and  is  very  much  of- 
fended at  it.  You  are  his  guest.  In  his  opinion  he  is  the 
lord  of  that  castle.  He  and  all  of  his  family  are  imme- 
diately at  your  service,  and  everything  they  have,  simple 
though  it  be,  is  yours." 

On  the  contrary,  the  servants  of  every  Russian  house  of 
any  pretensions,  and  even  minor  officers  on  guard  at  pub- 
lic buildings,  etc.,  all  expect  gifts  of  money,  and  some- 
times considerable  of  it,  too.  But  these  are  not  a  part  of 
the  Russian  people,  and  this  practice,  which  is  common  to 
English,  French,  and  Germans,  as  well  as  Russians,  is  not 
characteristically  Russian. 

It  is  doubted  whether  there  are  one  hundred  thousand 
out  of  our  eighty  million  Americans  who  believe  that 
there  is  any  jury  system  in  Russia.  Even  few  men 
who  have  given  considerable  attention  to  the  rise  of 
Russian  power  in  the  modern  world  understand  this 
fact.  The  law  courts  in  several  cities,  both  in  Russia 
and  Siberia,  were  visited.  In  Moscow  the  writer  saw 
criminals  tried  by  a  jury  of  twelve  men,  and,  except  for 
the  language  spoken,  it  would  be  impossible  to  tell  that 
that  jury  was  not  a  very  substantial  American  jury  instead 
of  a  Russian  one.  Inquiry  as  to  its  membership  showed 
that  on  that  jury  there  were  shopkeepers,  clerks,  mer- 
chants, one  nobleman,  a  banker,  etc.  The  methods  em- 
ployed seemed  to  be  very  similar  to  those  you  may  witness 
any  day  in  an  American  criminal  court.  The  only  visible 
exceptions  were  that  there  were  three  judges  instead  of  one 

405 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

and  that  these  judges  were  uniformed;  but  when  it  is  re- 
membered that  every  class  of  government  officials  in  Rus- 
sia has  its  distinct  and  separate  uniform,  and  that  uniforms 
in  Russia  do  not  necessarily  mean  military  service  at  all, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  may  distinguish  the  civil  official  from 
the  military  official,  this  fact  is  not  strange.  Another  ex- 
ception is  that  the  lawyers  all  wear  evening  dress — that 
is  to  say,  the  low-cut  vest,  the  white  and  stiffly  laundried 
shirt,  the  standing  collar,  the  white  lawn  tie,  and  all  of 
the  appointments  of  the  dress  of  an  American  gentleman 
when  he  goes  out  to  dinner  in  the  evening,  are  the  costume 
of  the  Russian  lawyer  during  the  sessions  of  court.  At 
least,  this  was  true  in  Moscow  on  the  occasions  when  the 
courts  of  that  real  Muscovite  capital  were  visited. 

Visit  now  another  court-room.  This  time  let  us  take  a 
department  answering  to  our  equity  court  here  or  in  Eng- 
land. Here  is  the  bench  for  the  judge,  precisely  as  in 
America.  Here  are  seats  for  anybody  who  wants  to  ob- 
serve the  proceedings  of  the  court,  exactly  as  in  America. 
(This  is  also  true  in  the  criminal  courts,  which  are  fre- 
quently largely  attended  by  interested  spectators.)  A  man 
and  a  woman,  evidently  a  Russian  farmer  and  his  wife, 
are  sitting  expectantly  on  two  of  these  seats  in  the  body 
of  the  room,  just  as  you  will  see  American  litigants 
of  the  same  class  awaiting  the  opening  of  court.  The 
judge  enters,  seats  himself,  opens  a  book,  and  then  calls 
the  names  of  these  two  people.  There  is  no  answer,  for 
evidently  they  are  without  a  lawyer.  So  the  judge  looks 
about,  and  asks  if  these  people  are  there.  The  man  gets 
up  and  says  that  they  are.  The  judge  tells  them  to  come 
forward.  They  go  forward,  and  then  there  are  other  pro- 
ceedings, without  the  least  bit  of  difference,  so  far  as  you 
can  see,  in  form  of  procedure,  from  those  of  the  similar 
courts  in  our  own  country. 

Some  differences,  however,  are  even  visible  to  the  eye 
and  ear  of  the  uninstructed  stranger.  Over  the  bench 
of  every  court -room  hangs  the  portrait  of  the  Czar.     In 

406 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

every  court-room,  too,  and  in  every  judge's  ofifice,  there 
is  the  holy  icon.  Also,  on  a  pedestal  near  the  bench,  is  a 
volume  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures. 

"What  is  this  room  for?"  was  asked  of  a  Siberian  law- 
yer who  was  explaining  the  various  rooms  of  the  court- 
house in  a  Siberian  city.  Here  was  a  room  for  the  wit- 
nesses who  were  waiting  until  they  could  be  examined. 
Here  was  a  room  for  the  lawyers.  Here  was  the  judge's 
room.  Over  there  was  the  jury-room,  and,  of  course,  the 
court-room  showed  in  itself  what  it  was,  because  it  was  like 
a  court-room  any  place  else.  "But  what  was  this  room 
for?"  was  asked.  The  answer  became  apparent  almost 
with  the  question,  for  out  of  it  stepped  the  familiar 
Russian  priest,  benevolent  of  appearance,  with  long, 
blond  beard  and  flowing  hair,  and  dark  garments  reach- 
ing to  his  feet.  The  priest  in  Russia,  it  appears,  ad- 
ministers the  oath  to  the  witnesses.  At  least,  this  was 
true  in  two  courts  visited,  one  in  Russia  itself  and  one  in 
Siberia. 

"You  see,"  said  a  lawyer,  with  great  irreverence,  all 
the  more  astonishing  because  irreverence  is  seldom  found 
in  Russia — "you  see,"  said  he,  "these  people  would  not 
think  they  had  been  sworn  unless  the  priest  administered 
the  oath  on  the  Scriptures."  Thus,  again,  cropped  out 
the  religious  nature  of  the  Russian. 

It  is  rather  startling,  considering  our  notions  of  Russian 
and  Siberian  life,  to  hear  the  cry  of  a  newsboy  on  a  boat 
in  the  Amur  River.  Yet  at  certain  points  the  Russian 
counterpart  of  the  American  news-vender  boards  these 
far-Siberian  craft  and  sells  daily  papers,  magazines,  and 
other  current  and  transient  literature. 

A  long,  low,  one-story  brick  building  attracted  the 
traveller's  attention  in  Irkutsk,  Siberia.  It  was  the 
office  of  one  of  the  daily  newspapers  of  this  commercial 
capital  of  the  Czar's  far  dominions.  It  is  a  two-sheet, 
four-page  pubHcation,  filled  almost  exclusively  with  news. 
The  more  important  information  from  Europe  it  receives 

407 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

by  telegraph.  Other  news  is  copied  from  the  news  items 
of  the  more  notable  Russian  journals.  In  the  few  copies 
inspected  there  was  a  fairly  free  discussion  of  all  subjects 
of  local  and  provincial  interest;  no  editorial  comment, 
however,  was  found  on  any  political  subject  in  the  sense 
that  we  understand  political  subjects  here  in  America. 

To  the  American  stranger  within  her  gates  St.  Peters- 
burg presents  many  surprises.  But  no  surprise,  perhaps, 
is  greater  than  the  news-stands  on  her  streets,  which  are 
not  unlike  the  news-stands  in  New  York,  only,  of  course, 
smaller  and  fewer.  Numbers  of  different  daily  papers  are 
published  in  the  capital,  and  sold  just  as  we  sell  them  here. 
In  Moscow  the  same  is  true.  No  business  man  in  this 
industrial  capital  of  old  Russia  is  without  his  daily  paper 
any  more  than  the  American  business  man  is.  Upon 
having  random  copies  of  different  papers  translated,  they 
were  found  to  be  surprisingly  full  of  both  local  and  foreign 
information,  and  the  expression  of  opinion  concerning 
matters  of  interest  to  their  readers  was  astonishingly 
free — surprising  and  astonishing  only  when  we  consider 
the  prevailing  American  view  as  to  the  suppression  of 
free  speech  in  Russia. 

Of  course,  in  comparison  with  our  American  news- 
papers, these  Russian  newspapers  are  inferior  from  every 
point  of  view.  Indeed,  the  American  newspaper  man 
would  not  call  them  newspapers  at  all,  perhaps.  Also, 
there  is,  of  course,  nothing  but  contrast  in  the  freedom  of 
speech  and  opinion  as  exemplified  by  English,  French,  or 
American  newspapers  and  the  relatively  guarded  and 
timid  utterances  of  the  Russian  press.  The  point  is  that 
Russia  is  not  without  her  daily  newspaper.  The  people 
are  not  without  their  current  literature.  Here  is  a 
partial  list  of  newspapers  and  magazines  published  in 
Moscow,  which  will  give  some  idea  of  their  scope: 
Architectural  Motives,  Bulletins  of  the  Polytechnic  So- 
ciety, The  Veterinary  Review,  Round  the  World,  Philo- 
sophical and  Psychological  Matters,  Tlie  Smuiay,  Sunday 

408 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Conversations,  Medical  Commiinicatiotis,  The  Moscow 
Metropolitan  Police  News,  Statistics  of  Prices  on  Materials 
and  Provisions,  The  Pedagogical  Magazine,  The  Book- 
sellers' News,  The  Bicyclist  News,  The  Surgery  News,  The 
Friend  to  Animals,  Reading  for  the  Soul,  The  Children  s 
Magazine,  Physics  and  Geography,  Russian  Physician's 
Journal,  The  Sport  Journal,  Communications  of  the  Mos- 
cow Imperial  Technical  Society,  Geography,  The  Dentist, 
The  Moscow  Townhall  News,  The  PJiysical  AntJiropolog- 
ical  Review,  The  Clinical  Journal,  The  Hunting  Journal, 
The  Pilot,  The  Courier,  The  Commercial  and  Technical 
Advertiser,  The  Lumber  Trade  News,  Little  Tales,  The 
Mathematical  Review,  The  Medical  Guide,  The  Medicinal 
Review,  The  Miller,  The  Moscow  Newspaper,  The  Moscow 
News,  The  Moscow  Messenger,  The  Moscow  Ecclesiastical 
News,  The  Ant,  The  News  of  the  Day,  The  News  of  the 
Season,  The  Pedagogical  News,  The  Orthodox  Messenger, 
Nature  and  Hunting  and  Sport  Journal,  The  Breeding  of 
Birds,  The  Distraction,  The  Artisan's  Journal,  The  Native 
Language,  The  Russian  Thought,  The  Russian  Archives, 
The  Russian  Messenger,  The  Russian  Zither-Player,  The 
Russian  News,  The  Rtcsso  -  English  Commercial  News, 
Russian  Horticulture,  The  Russian  Speech,  Garden  and 
Orchard,  The  Agricultural  Journal,  The  Family,  Judiciary 
Dramas,  Play  Bills,  Theatrical  News,  Technical  Communi- 
cations and  Industrial  News,  The  Commercial  and  Indus- 
trial News,  Communications  of  the  Physical  Society,  Com- 
munications of  the  Physiological  Institute,  Moscow  Uni- 
versity, The  Pharmaceutical  News,  The  Pharmaceutist,  The 
Philological  Review,  The  Photographic  Review,  Lectures  at 
the  Imperial  Historical  and  Archceological  Society,  The  Eth- 
nological Review.  All  told,  there  are  over  one  hundred 
periodicals  in  Moscow  alone. 

Here  is  a  small  number  of  St.  Petersburg  periodicals: 
Tlte  Artillery  Journal,  Archives  for  Biology,  Archives  for 
Veterinary  Sciences,  Archives  for  Psychology,  Neurology, 
and  Judicial  Psycho-Pathology,  The  Typical  Theatre  Pla^y 

409 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Bills,  The  Bibliographical  Newspaper,  Bibliographical 
News,  The  Bibliographer,  The  Exchange  News,  God  to 
Aid,  The  Hospital  Gazette,  The  Tartar,  Care  for  Your 
Health,  The  Russian  Telegraphic  Agency's  Bulletins, 
The  Bicycle,  The  Veterinary  Library,  The  Veterinary 
Assistant  Surgeon,  The  Byzantine  Messenger,  The  Vio- 
loncellist, The  Army  Physician's  Jourital,  The  Mili- 
tary Magazine,  The  Revival,  The  Sunday,  Education 
and  Instruction,  The  Physician,  The  Homoeopathist,  The 
World's  Post,  The  Universal  Technical  Review,  The  Met- 
ropolitan News,  Statistics  of  Prices,  The  Vienna  Fashion, 
The  Military  Clergy's  Messenger,  The  Graphical  Art  News, 
The  European  Messenger,  The  Physical  Sciences  Messenger, 
The  Imperial  Russian  Horticultural  Society's  Messenger, 
The  Foreign  Literature  Magazine,  Foreign  Agriculture, 
The  Engineering  Department's  Messenger,  The  Fashion, 
The  Corn  Trade  Gazette,  The  Sea  Engineer's  Society's  Mes- 
senger, The  Military  Science  Journal,  The  Technical  So- 
ciety's Gazette,  The  Veterinary  Gazette,  The  Law  Messenger, 
The  Breeding  of  Birds,  The  Russian  Red  Cross  Society's 
Messenger,  The  A grictdtural  Journal,  The  Russian  Brewery 
Jotirnal,  Theatrical  and  Musical  Journal,  The  Sobriety 
Gazette,  The  Financial,  Industrial,  and  Commercial  Mes- 
senger, The  Orderly,  The  Mining  Journal,  The  Advertiser, 
The  Citizen,  Graphical  Art  and  Printing  Industry,  The 
Freight's  List,  The  Village,  Journal  for  Theatre  and  Art, 
The  Home  Library,  Leisure  and  Work,  Leisure  for  Blind 
People,  The  Russian  Newspaper,  Leisure  for  Children,  The 
Childhood,  The  Zoological  Museum's  Animals,  The  Imperial 
Theatre's  Annals,  The  Weekly  Report,  The  Railways,  For 
Women,  Old  Times,  The  Picturesque  Review,  The  Life,  Life 
and  School,  Journal  for  Feminine  Pathology,  The  Journal 
for  Everybody ,  Review  of  Reviews  and  Encyclopedian  Re- 
view, The  Medical  Chemistry  and  Pharmacy  Journal,  The 
Board  of  Schools  Journal,  The  Justice  Department's  Journal, 
Words  for  the  Soul,  The  Star,  The  Agricultural  Gazette,  The 
Architect,  The  Dentist's  Journal,  The  Toys,  Communica- 

410 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

iions  of  the  Agricultural  Department,  Art  and  Artistic  Re- 
view, The  Historical  Review,  The  Breeding  of  Horses,  The 
Peasant's  Housekeeping,  The  Horizon,  The  Deaf  Mute's 
Education,  Literature,  Literature  for  the  Family,  The  Ray, 
The  Forest  Journal,  The  Lord's  Worlds,  The  World  of 
Art,  The  Fashionable  Courier,  The  Naval  Magazine,  Music 
and  Song,  The  Observer,  The  People,  The  Scientific  Re- 
view, The  Architect's  Week,  The  News  and  Exchange  Ga- 
zette, The  New  Journal  for  Foreign  Literature,  Art  and 
Science,  The  Novelist,  The  Cidture,  The  St.  Petersburg 
Gazette,  Polytechnic  Sciences,  The  Post  and  Telegraph 
Journal,  The  Government's  Messenger,  The  Industrial 
World,  The  Explorator,  Russia,  The  Russian  School,  The 
Russian  Elementary  Tutor,  The  Russian  Tourist,  The  Rus- 
sian Wealth,  The  Russian  Economist,  The  Metropolitan 
Courier,  The  Insurance  Review,  The  Insurance  News,  The 
Northern  Courier,  The  Prison's  Messenger ,  The  Church 
Messenger ,  The  Church  News,  School  and  Housekeeping, 
The  Electricity,  The  Electrician,  The  Lawyer's  Gazette,  The 
Universal  History  Messenger. 

The  total  number  of  St.  Petersburg  periodicals  is  con- 
siderably over  three  hundred. 

Of  the  publications  above  mentioned,  those  which  deal 
with  scientific  and  military  subjects  are  very  creditable. 
Perhaps  there  are  no  more  thoroughly  scientific  publica- 
tions printed  in  America  than  there  are  in  Russia.  This, 
of  course,  however,  is  a  matter  of  opinion.  The  military 
publications,  too,  are  said  to  be  quite  equal  to  those  of 
any  other  country. 

The  censorship  of  foreign  newspapers  and  magazines 
is  still  rigid  in  Russia.  However,  it  is  in  the  process 
of  relaxation ;  also  it  is  by  no  means  perfect.  For  exam- 
ple, the  letter  of  Tolstoi  to  the  Czar  and  his  ministers, 
which  went  to  the  limit  of  our  American  ideas  of  free  pe- 
tition, was  found  blotted  out  in  one  copy  of  the  London 
Times,  and  yet  another  copy,  obtained  in  Russia,  had  the 
whole  letter  without  an  erasure.     This  suggests  a  languor 

4n 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

and  indifference  on  the  part  of  the  censors.  The  method 
of  censoring  foreign  publications  distasteful  to  the  govern- 
ment is  simple.  It  consists  merely  in  obliterating  the 
entire  article  or  paragraph.  In  the  middle  of  a  page 
you  will  see,  perhaps,  a  whole  column  made  blank  and 
black.  It  is  as  if  a  roller  of  printer's  ink  had  been  run 
over  the  objectionable  article.  Where  the  obliteration  of 
an  article  is  attempted,  it  is,  so  far  as  observed,  quite 
thorough.  Not  a  word  or  a  letter  can  be  made  out.  The 
whole  thing  is  simply  sponged  off,  as  it  were,  with  black- 
ness. 

Not  all  books  are  permitted  in  Russian  book-stores, 
yet  suppression  is  not  so  complete  as  the  uninstructed 
American  visitor  imagines.  For  example,  a  certain  novel 
by  an  English  author,  which  the  writer  was  informed 
would  be  objectionable  if  found  by  the  custom  officers 
on  crossing  the  German  frontier  into  Russia,  was  thrown 
out  of  the  car  window;  yet  in  the  English  book -store 
in  St.  Petersburg  this  very  novel  was  found  on  sale. 
Again,  information  was  had  in  London  that  a  certain 
book  on  Russia  was  not  permitted  within  the  dominions 
of  the  Czar,  yet  this  entire  work  was  purchased  in  a  Rus- 
sian book-store.  Still  again,  a  certain  writer  has  pub- 
lished several  volumes  of  great  learning  and  astonishing 
research  upon  Russian  institutions  and  practices.  Positive 
information  was  had  that  this  work  also  was  excluded, 
yet  an  excellent  English  translation  of  every  page  of  it 
was  procured  right  in  St.  Petersburg.  Nevertheless, 
books,  papers,  magazines,  and  all  literature  which  tend 
to  discredit  Russian  institutions  and  to  undermine  the 
people's  respect  for  authority  of  the  government  are 
still  carefully  excluded. 

"We  do  not  understand  why  we  should  allow  other 
people  to  abuse  us  in  our  own  house,"  said  a  Russian 
apologist  for  this  practice.  "With  the  exception  of  a 
very  small  percentage  of  us,  we  Russian  people  are  very 
well  content  with  our  Russian  institutions  and  Russian 

412 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

administration.  Yet  here  comes  a  volume  by  some  fanat- 
ical critic  of  everything  Russian,  with  ideas  and  notions 
subversive  of  the  whole  scheme  of  our  Slav  civilization. 
Nine  times  out  of  ten  the  writer  is  ignorant  of  the  facts 
which  he  assumes  to  set  forth.  Oftener  still  his  views 
and  arguments  based  on  those  facts  are  plainly  the  work 
of  some  hare-brained  person  who  wants  to  reform  the 
world.  Very  frequently  people  abuse  us  with  the  pen 
who  have  never  been  within  the  borders  of  our  land ;  but 
if  we  admit  the  work  of  a  thoroughly  studious,  well-in- 
formed writer,  whose  facts  are  accurate  and  whose  criti- 
cisms are  carefully  reasoned,  we  must  admit  all.  We 
think  it  better  and  easier  to  exclude  all.  Especially  is  this 
so  when  we  fail  to  see  what  possible  good  it  could  do, 
anyhow." 

Reading  among  the  people  is  increasing.  This  is  due 
to  the  rapid  growth  of  both  common  and  ecclesias- 
tical schools  throughout  the  empire,  and  it  is  also  due  to 
a  peculiar  custom  prevailing  in  the  Russian  army.  It  is 
said  to  be  the  duty  of  the  officers  to  instruct  the  illiterate 
recruit  in  reading  and  writing.  No  doubt  this  duty  is 
performed  very  negligently;  yet  certain  it  is  that  peas- 
ants from  the  agricultural  districts  of  the  empire  hundreds 
of  miles  from  any  large  city,  who  had  been  taken  into  the 
army  and  were  being  sent  uninformed  to  the  Far  Eastern 
frontier,  were  seen  day  after  day  absorbed  in  various 
little  pocket  volumes.  One  of  these  little  books,  which  a 
peasant  soldier  was  not  only  reading  but  carefully  study- 
ing, was  a  simple  and  elemental  work  on  physiology.  An- 
other soldier  had  a  little  paper-covered  book  on  the  horse, 
its  proper  management  and  care,  together  with  an  ac- 
count of  the  diseases  of  the  horse,  and  how  they  should 
be  treated.  Still  another  one  had  a  paper-covered  novel, 
dealing  of  adventure  and  hair -breadth  'scapes.  It  was 
the  Russian  counterpart  of  our  American  dime  novel. 

It  is  certain  that  the  working-people  in  the  great  cities 
do  considerable  reading.     The  country  peasants  also  do 

413 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

some  reading.  In  the  book-stores,  or  stalls,  where  the 
military  and  religious  prints  to  which  reference  has  been 
made  were  sold  there  were  perfect  stacks  of  these  low- 
class  works  of  fiction.  Mostly  they  are  stories  of  desper- 
ate adventure.  Also  they  have  pictures  on  the  back 
covers  representing  frightful  encounters.  One  of  these 
novels  was  found  which  assumed  to  tell  of  the  life  of  the 
American  pioneer  and  his  conflicts  with  the  American 
Indian.  On  the  back  of  it  was  a  picture  of  the  American 
Indian  and  the  trapper  engaged  in  deadly  conflict. 

"I  should  judge  from  your  supply  of  those  books  that 
you  have  a  heavy  demand  for  them,"  was  suggested  to 
the  bookseller. 

"Oh  yes,  that  is  quite  true,"  he  answered.  "The  peo- 
ple buy  these  novelettes  constantly,  and  in  great  quan- 
tities. They  buy  more  of  these  than  they  do  of  any  other 
kind  of  books  we  keep.  Next  to  these  are  Bible  stories 
and  religious  legends.  Indeed,  the  sale  of  these  religious 
booklets  almost  equals  the  sale  of  the  novels  of  advent- 
ure." 

It  was  found  that  the  sale  of  this  low-priced  and  low- 
grade  literature  was  in  about  the  reversed  proportion  of 
the  sale  of  the  colored  prints  or  pictures;  that  is,  more 
religious  pictures  were  sold  than  prints  representing  war 
scenes,  although  the  sale  of  the  latter  almost  equalled  the 
former.  Conversely,  more  stories  of  adventure  and  travel 
are  sold  than  books  containing  stories  of  Biblical  times, 
although  the  sale  of  the  latter  almost  equalled  the  former. 

At  several  of  the  book-stands  patronized  exclusively 
by  the  working -people,  some  of  Tolstoi's  stories  were 
found  on  sale.  They  are  readily  purchased  and  widely 
read.  Time  did  not  permit  such  careful  inquiry  as  to  dis- 
cover whether  or  not  all  of  his  novels  are  published  and 
read  in  Russia,  though  the  information  was — and  such 
investigation  as  could  be  made  confirmed  it — that  only 
one  or  two  of  Tolstoi's  novels  are  suppressed.  Practi- 
cally all  oi  his   religious   and  sociological  essays,  how- 

414 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

ever,  are  probably  prohibited.  Many  of  these  essays  and 
articles  of  the  great  Russian  dreamer  are  fearless,  even 
violent,  and  most  direct  attacks  upon  the  Russian  na- 
tional Church,  on  the  one  hand,  and  upon  all  government, 
and  especially  Russian  government,  on  the  other  hand. 

Their  suppression  is  not  surprising  when  one  considers 
the  Russian  point  of  view.  No  one  ever  attacked  any 
Church  organization  more  unsparingly  than  does  Tolstoi, 
and  this  while  still  a  member  of  the  Church  organization 
which  he  is  assailing.  His  last  attack  upon  the  Church 
was  so  bitter,  and  he  denounced  with  such  violence  not 
only  the  Church  organization  and  administration  of  Rus- 
sia but  the  whole  modern  practice  of  Chiistianity,  that 
the  Church  authorities  excluded  Tolstoi  from  membership 
in  the  Church.  It  was  the  same  thing  frequently  done 
twenty  years  ago  in  every  religious  community  in  the 
United  States.  The  expulsion  from  a  Church  society 
of  any  of  our  American  denominations  years  ago  because 
some  member  of  some  local  Church  disagreed  with  the 
teachings  of  his  denomination  on  some  Scriptural  passage 
was,  in  a  very  mild  form,  the  same  punishment  for  the 
same  offence  for  which  Tolstoi  was  excommunicated  from 
the  Russian  Church. 


XXVIII 

THE    RUSSIAN    COMMON    SCHOOL    AND    COUNTRY    HOSPITAL 

PERHAPS  our  hospital  will  interest  you,"  said  a 
resident  of  a  Russian  country  town,  which  was  the 
headquarters  or  seat  of  the  zemstvo  of  that  locality. 
Hospital  in  a  town  of  that  size !  It  was  surprising ;  for  no 
such  institution  would  be  found  in  an  American  town  of 
many  times  its  population.  So  the  hospital  was  visited. 
It  was  located  perhaps  half  a  mile  from  the  town  itself. 
It  stood  in  a  pleasant  field,  with  shady  trees  hard  by.  It 
was  a  long,  low  building  of  brick,  with  but  a  single  story. 
Two  young  physicians  were  in  charge.  Busy  about  their 
duties  were  several  women  nurses,  dressed  as  the  Amer- 
ican trained  nurse  is  attired.  The  rooms,  and,  indeed, 
the  whole  place,  were  scrupulously  clean,  and  the  fa- 
miliar odor  of  disinfectants  characteristic  of  all  such 
places  filled  the  air.  The  few  patients  appeared  to  be 
well  attended,  and  the  beds  on  which  they  lay  were  com- 
fortable and  spotless.  The  laboratory  equipment  of  this 
establishment  appeared  to  be  extremely  generous,  and 
the  surgical  instruments  especially  were  numerous  and  up 
to  date. 

"Yes,"  said  the  Russian  who  guided  the  visitor  from 
the  town  to  this  institution  of  healing,  "  we  are  very  mucK 
pleased  with  our  progress  in  hospital  building  and  in 
all  departments  of  the  medical  profession.  Indeed,  there 
seems  to  be  in  recent  years  an  epidemic  of  hospital 
building,  but  whether  it  is  permanent  or  not,  of  course  I 
cannot  say."  But  whether  permanent  or  not,  certain  it 
is  that  you  will  run  across  a  surprising  number  of  up-to- 

416 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

date  hospitals  in  certain  country  districts  of  the  empire. 
Upon  this  being  called  to  the  attention  of  a  Russian  lady 
of  travel  and  education,  she  said:  "I  think  it  is  a  very 
hopeful  development.  There  are  four  such  hospitals 
within  a  radius  of  one  hundred  versts  from  this  spot. 
They  are  all  for  the  common  people,  too.  This  does  not 
look  like  we  are  such  a  hard-hearted  people  as  our  enemies 
make  us  out  to  be,  does  it?" 

In  travelling  across  the  country,  from  one  estate  to  an- 
other, three  little  red  school-houses  were  noted  and  ex- 
amined. One  was  found  in  the  centre  of,  perhaps,  the 
most  thriving  agricultural  village  visited.  It  was  about 
the  size  of  an  ordinary  American  country  school-house, 
surrounded  by  a  httle  yard,  fenced  in,  and  full  of  young 
trees.  In  the  school-room  itself  were  wooden  benches  and 
desks,  exactly  like  those  in  an  American  country  school 
some  years  ago.  Every  American  who  was  raised  in  the 
country  and  who  has  reached  thirty  years  of  age  has 
gone  to  school  in  just  such  a  school -house,  and  sat  on  just 
such  benches,  and  carved  just  such  wooden  desks.  And 
these  Russian  boys  and  girls  apparently  do  the  same 
things  that  the  American  boys  and  girls  in  our  country 
schools  did  twenty  years  ago. 

The  school  was  not  in  session  in  any  country  school- 
house  visited,  because  it  was  summer,  and  the  year's  term 
had  expired  and  the  fall  term  had  not  begun.  In  the 
little  school-house  described,  in  the  peasant  village,  the 
teacher  was  a  young  woman.  She  did  not  live  in  the  vil- 
lage, however,  and  there  was  no  opportunity  of  conversa- 
tion with  her.  Several  peasant  mothers  of  the  children 
who  attended  the  school  dropped  curiously  in,  however, 
and  the  conversation  with  these  women  was  engaging  in 
its  simplicity  and  fervor.  None  of  these  women  could 
read  and  write,  but  they  were  delighted  beyond  measure 
that  their  children  were  being  taught  these  wonderful  ac- 
complishments. 

"Oh  yes,"  said  one  of  these  Russian  mothers,  "we  are 

'7  417 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

so  glad  that  our  children  will  know  how  to  read  and  write 
and  make  figures  and  do  everything  else  that  the  high  peo- 
ple can  do." 

"We  had  no  chance  ourselves,  you  see,"  said  another, 
"and  it  makes  us  all  happier  to  think  that  our  boys  and 
girls  can  have  a  chance." 

With  others  the  expressions  were  duplicates  of  those 
old-time  i\.merican  fathers  and  mothers  who  "had  no 
education,"  but  who  were  willing  to  deprive  themselves 
even  of  the  necessaries  of  life  to  "give  our  children  a 
chance."  With  all  the  racial  differences  and  the  improve- 
ments of  them,  how  alike,  after  all,  is  human  nature  when 
you  get  to  the  heart  of  it. 

Many  copy-books  were  still  in  the  school-room,  and 
these  were  inspected.  The  penmanship  of  the  young 
learner  was  very  poor.  Not  in  one  single  instance,  in 
the  copy-book  of  either  a  boy  or  girl,  were  observed 
neatness  and  precision  of  chirography.  It  was  pointed 
out  that  this  inattention  to  the  details  of  penmanship 
was  perhaps  partly  racial,  the  Russian  being  universally 
negligent,  despite  his  passion  for  foi-m;  and  that  it  was 
partly  due  to  the  intellectual  languor  from  which  the 
Russian  peasant  is  just  recovering.  The  contrast  be- 
tween the  writing  of  these  Russian  children  and  the 
penmanship  of  the  children  who  are  beginning  to  learn 
to  write  in  American  schools  in  our  Pacific  possessions  is 
startling. 

Scores  of  copy-books  were  examined  in  various  towns 
of  Luzon,  and  the  printed  copy  at  the  top  of  the  page 
was  reproduced  with  almost  the  precision  of  an  en- 
graving. No  American  copy-book  has  been  seen  which 
presents  such  perfect,  literal,  exact  reprod^^ction  of  the 
copy  at  the  top  of  the  page  as  those  made  by  the  Philip- 
pine children  in  our  American  schools  in  the  Philippines. 
This  superiority  of  penmanship  on  the  part  of  Filipino 
children  over  Russian  children  does  not,  by  any  manner 
of  means,  indicate  greater  intelligence  of  the  former;  it 

418 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

indicates,  first  of  all,  a  peculiar  adeptness  in  copying  and 
in  all  things  done  by  the  hand,  which  is  a  characteristic 
of  the  Filipino  and  Malay  everywhere;  it  indicates,  in  the 
second  place,  the  superiority  of  our  American  method 
of  teaching. 

At  another  little  red  school  -  house,  standing  perhaps 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  another  Russian  country  village, 
the  teacher  was  a  man.  He  was  married,  and  at  the 
time  the  school  was  visited  husband  and  wife  were  liv- 
ing in  the  school-house  itself.  It  was  a  duplicate  of  the 
school-house  above  described.  This  particular  teacher 
seemed  to  have  in  his  work  the  enthusiasm  of  a  missionary. 
And  when  your  Russian  is  an  enthusiast  he  is  the  most 
enthusiastic  enthusiast  in  the  world.  The  mission  of 
this  young  Russian  man  was  to  give  his  whole  Hfe  to  the 
instruction  of  the  rising  generation  of  Russians,  so  far 
as  he  could. 

"I  find  my  scholars  eager  to  learn,"  said  he.  "I  do  not 
find  teaching  hard.  I  am  in  love  with  my  work.  My 
pay,  of  course,  is  small.  I  can  hardly  live  on  it;  but 
what  of  that?  I  do  live  on  it,  and  that  is  enough.  I  am 
not  teaching  in  order  to  make  money.  I  am  teaching  in 
order  to  do  good.  All  I  expect,  all  I  ask,  all  I  want  is 
enough  to  keep  me  comfortable.  My  wife  and  myself 
are  very  happy  in  our  work." 

Also,  throughout  the  country  is  an  occasional  ecclesias- 
tical school  or  seminary.  These  are  usually  large  brick 
buildings,  very  much  like  similar  brick  buildings  in  the 
smaller  American  towns.  These  are  established  and  con- 
ducted by  the  Church  authorities.  In  these  institutions 
everything  is  taught  that  is  taught  in  the  common  schools 
of  the  country,  and  much  more  besides.  Especial  stress, 
however,  is  laid  upon  religious  instruction. 

Indeed,  religious  instruction  permeates  every  branch  of 
study  and  every  hour  of  the  school-day  in  the  Russian 
school,  just  as  religion  saturates  all  Russian  life,  official, 
commercial,  domestic.     A  set  of  school-books  was  pur- 

419 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

chased  in  a  Siberian  town.  Here  is  a  translation  from 
one  of  the  elementary  readers,  which,  perhaps,  gives  a 
better  idea  of  h(5w  religion  is  the  beginning  and  the  end 
of  all  Russian  instruction  than  any  other  description  can 
give.  The  first  paragraph  of  the  first  page,  after  the 
alphabet  and  numerals  (in  Slavic,  Arabic,  and  Roman), 
is  as  follows: 

"Now, dear  boys,  we  have  finished  the  spelling,  and  may,  with- 
out haste,  read  words  and  whole  sentences.  In  all  this  God  has 
helped  us  in  His  love  and  mercy  to  us.  To  Him  we  consecrate  the 
learning  we  have  gained,  and  this  we  fulfil  in  reading  and  learning 
prayers  with  which  it  is  necessary  for  us  to  commence,  live,  and 
finish  every  day.  But  before  we  commence  to  learn  to  pray  to 
God,  let  us  try  to  acquire  the  clearest  possible  understanding  about 
what  praying  means  and  how  should  we  pray.  In  the  prayers  we 
either  glorify,  that  is.  praise  God,  or  beg  Him  satisfy  our  wants,  or 
thank  Him  for  His  mercy  to  us,"  etc. 

This  book,  as  has  been  said,  is  an  elementary  reader. 
It  is  paper-covered,  and  on  the  outside  is  a  picture  of  a 
child  kneeling  in  prayer,  its  head  lifted  to  a  light  which 
is  breaking  from  heaven  through  the  clouds.  The  hands 
are  brought  together  in  an  attitude  of  supplication. 
The  second  picture  in  the  book  is  of  two  of  the  Scriptural 
prophets  holding  between  them  the  Russian  cross.  Then 
follow  pictures  representing  the  creation  of  the  heavens 
and  the  earth;  of  Adam  and  Eve  in  the  Garden;  of  the 
Tower  of  Babel;  of  Abraham  about  to  sacrifice  Isaac,  and 
stayed  in  the  act  by  the  angel ;  of  the  Egyptians  perishing 
in  the  waters  of  the  Red  Sea. 

Then  full-page  and  very  fair  illustrations  of  the  angel 
telling  Mary  of  the  coming  of  Christ ;  of  the  Saviour  in  the 
manger ;  of  the  star  in  the  east  and  the  wise  men  adoring 
it;  of  the  ascension  into  heaven,  etc.,  etc.  Throughout 
the  book  the  majority  of  the  illustrations  are  from  the 
Bible. 

That  we  may  get  some  idea  of  what  is  taught  in  the 
Russian  common  schools,  let  us  take  from  a  descriptive 

420 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

geography  some  quotations.  Here  is  a  description  of 
the  United  States,  its  people,  government,  and  institu- 
tions, taken  from  a  Russian  elementary  descriptive  geog- 
raphy : 

"The  United  States  form  a  federation  of  thirtj'-nine  (1894) 
independent  republics  (States),  ten  Territories,  and  one  District, 
Columbia,  in  which  is  situated  the  capital  of  the  empire,  Wash- 
ington. 

"The  federation  is  governed  by  the  Congress,  which  is  composed 
of  deputies  elected  by  the  inhabitants. 

"  Congress  makes  the  laws  concerning  war  or  peace,  dealing  with 
other  empires,  settles  duties  and  taxes,  etc. 

"The  President  watches  over  the  execution  of  these  laws  (elect- 
ed four  years). 

"  In  all  other  affairs  of  State  administration,  every  State  is  gov- 
erned by  its  Senate,  which  is  composed  of  deputies  elected  by  the 
State. 

"The  executive  power  in  each  State  belongs  to  the  elected  Gov- 
ernor. 

"The  Territories  are  administered  by  the  Governors  nominated 
by  the  President  of  the  United  States. 

"In  this  country  there  is  no  difference  of  class  among  the  people. 
All  inhabitants  enjoy  the  same  rights,  and  only  differ  in  the  way  of 
occupations. 

"  There  is  no  state  (government)  religion.  Everybody  is  at  liberty 
to  confess  to  the  faith  which  he  likes  best.  The  most  people  belong 
to  the  Protestant  Church,  which  here  is  divided  into  many  sects. 

"  In  no  empire  is  there  paid  so  much  attention  to  the  public  in- 
struction as  in  the  United  States;  no  other  country  has  such  enor- 
mous money  sums  donated  for  this  purpose  as  the  United  States, 
and,  therefore,  the  number  of  public  schools  and  other  educational 
institutions  here  is  very  great.  The  towns  of  Boston  and  Phila- 
delphia especially  have  numerous  institutions  for  the  culture  of 
science. 

"The  sources  of  wealth  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  States  remind 
of  Russia;  just  as  here  agriculture  and  cattle  farming  form  the 
principal  occupation  of  the  people.  But  through  the  warmer  cli- 
mate of  the  States,  both  these  sources  are  more  productive  than  in 
Russia." 

The  maps  in  this  geography  are  fairly  accurate,  but  are, 
of  course,  enormously  inferior  to  the  maps  in  our  Ameri- 
can elementary  geographies.     The  pictures,  however,  rep- 

421 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

resenting  animal  and  plant  life  and  native  customs  in 
various  countries,  are  equal  to  and  not  dissimilar  from 
those  of  our  American  geographies  of  like  grade  studied 
by  most  Americans,  who  are  now  grown  men  and  women, 
when  they  were  boys  and  girls. 

Extracts  from  still  another  book,  an  elementary  histo- 
ry, will  show  what  the  Russian  children  are  taught  con- 
cerning the  other  European  countries.  Here  is  one  on 
Germany : 

"Thirty-six  per  cent,  of  the  German  population  confess  to  the 
Catholic  and  sixty- four  per  cent,  the  Protestant  faith;  the  Cath- 
olics are  in  majority  in  the  South,  the  Protestants  in  the  North. 

"Elementary  instruction  is  obligatory  all  over  GeiTnany  for  all 
inhabitants.  Nowhere  in  Europe,  except  in  Switzerland,  are 
there  so  many  public  schools  (sixty  thousand)  and  other  places  of 
instruction  as  here;  in  Germany  are  twenty  universities,  of  which 
many  are  famous  all  over  the  world,  gathering  scholars  not  only 
from  Europe  but  from  other  parts  of  the  world.  Such  are  the 
Universities  of  Berlin,  Leipsic,  Heidelberg,  and  others. 

"The  German  Empire  is  a  federation  of  twenty-six  states,  each 
of  which  has  its  own  governm.ent  and  its  own  laws;  but  affairs  con- 
cerning the  defence  of  the  German  Empire,  its  dealings  with  other 
states,  as  also  the  administration  of  posts,  telegraphs,  railways, 
and  the  monetary  system,  are  laid  in  the  hands  of  the  German 
Emperor,  whose  power  in  all  named  matters  is  limited  by  the 
parliament  (Reichstag)  and  Imperial  Council,  consisting  of  depu- 
ties from  all  the  states  of  the  empire.  The  Prussian  King  at  the 
same  time  is  German  Emperor." 

Here  is  one  on  France: 

"Nearly  eleven  -  twelfths  of  all  the  population  belong  to  the 
Catholic  Church. 

"The  instruction  of  the  people  ranges  lower  than  in  other  em- 
pires of  Central  Europe,  with  the  exception  of  Austria,  but  higher 
instructirn  in  France  has  many  institutions,  and  Frenchmen  have 
dc  ne  much  in  the  field  of  science  and  art. 

"The  form  of  government  is  the  republican;  the  law-giving 
power  belongs  to  the  National  Assembly',  the  executive  power  to 
the  President.  In  administrative  respect  the  country  is  divided 
into  eighty-seven  parts,  called  departments.  The  departments 
carry  the  names  of  the  rivers  on  which  they  are  situated." 

422 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 
Again,  here  is  one  on  England; 

"State  religion,  Anglican  Church,  but  a  great  part  of  the  peo- 
ple in  Scotland  profess  the  Presbyterian  faith,  in  Ireland  the 
Catholic;  besides,  there  are  in  England  many  foUowei^s  of  different 
sects. 

"In  England,  as  in  France,  the  public  instruction  is  not  widely 
expanded;  but  for  higher  instruction  you  find  many  institutions 
and  twelve  unixersities. 

"The  form  of  government  is  the  monarchical,  in  connection  with 
a  parliament.  In  administrative  respect  all  England  is  divided 
into  one  hundred  and  seventeen  counties." 

"That  structure  there  will  interest  you,"  said  the 
interpreter,  pointing  to  a  very  large  and  fairly  attractive 
brick  building  in  a  certain  Siberian  city.  "It  is  the 
Girls'  Seminary." 

To  the  real  extent  to  which  the  instruction  of  women  is 
carried  in  Russia  no  guess  is  hazarded.  But  it  seemed 
that  there  was  no  end  of  girls'  schools  and  girls'  seminaries, 
and  this,  that,  or  the  other  institution  for  the  instruction 
of  girls.  Also  technical  schools  of  various  sorts  are 
springing  up  throughout  the  empire.  Frequently  you 
will  run  upon  some  special  institution  of  learning  such 
as  the  University  for  the  Study  of  Oriental  Languages 
at  Vladivostock.  In  Blagovestchensk,  Siberia,  a  neat 
little  structure  was  pointed  out  as  a  school  of  riparian 
navigation.  And  Russians  contend  that  their  military 
schools,  and  particularly  one  institution  of  this  kind, 
are  the  most  perfect  in  the  world.  The  common  schools 
are  fairly  numerous,  too.  Strange  to  say,  they  are  more 
numerous  in  Siberia,  in  proportion  to  the  population, 
than  in  Russia  itself.  Here  again  it  is  observed,  in' 
education,  as  has  before  been  observed  in  railway  ad- 
ministration, that  reforms  come  from  without  inward, 
instead  of  the  reverse. 

It  must  not  be  inferred  from  this  that  education  in 
Russia  is  universal,  or  even  general,  and  especially  that  no 
great   educational   wave   is   sweeping   over   the  empire. 

423 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

But  the  truth  is  that  popular  education  in  Russia  has  a 
very  fair  beginning,  and  that  substantial  and  even  notable 
progress  is  being  made.  A  good  index  of  this  is  found 
in  the  increasing  numbers  of  peasants  who  can  read 
and  write  when  taken  into  the  army  from  their  homes. 
It  is  said  that  at  the  time  of  the  Crimean  war  but  one 
peasant  out  of  every  fifty  taken  into  the  service  was  able 
to  read  and  write.  Only  a  few  years  ago  this  had  been 
reduced  to  five;  and  at  the  present  time  the  information 
is  that  one  out  of  every  three  Russian  peasants  can  read 
and  write  when  first  taken  into  the  army.  This  shows 
deplorable  illiteracy,  it  is  true,  even  at  the  present  time; 
but  it  also  shows  extraordinary  progress  during  the  past 
five  decades.  For  if  fifty  years  ago  but  one  peasant  out 
of  every  fifty  could  read  and  write  when  he  went  into  the 
army,  and  to-day  one  in  three  can  read  and  write  when  he 
is  taken  into  the  army,  the  increase  of  literacy  among  the 
common  people  of  Russia  is  shown  to  be  astonishingly 
rapid. 

There  are,  all  told,  something  over  eighty  thousand 
schools  in  Russia,  taught  by  over  one  hundred  and 
fifteen  thousand  teachers,  and  attended  by  about  four 
million  pupils.  Compared  with  the  immense  school  at- 
tendance in  the  United  States,  the  number  of  children  in 
Russian  schools  is  very  small  indeed;  and  when  it  is  re- 
membered that  the  population  of  the  Russian  Empire  is 
approximately  sixty  millions  greater  than  the  population 
of  the  United  States,  the  disparity  of  the  school  attend- 
ance in  the  two  countries  becomes  all  the  more  striking. 
The  contrast  between  school  attendance  in  Russia  and 
other  European  countries,  including  England,  is  also 
considerable;  but,  of  course,  by  no  means  so  emphatic 
as  the  comparison  of  Russian  and  American  school  at- 
tendance. 

From  another  view -point,  however,  these  Russian 
educational  statistics  are  by  no  means  gloomy.  Re- 
membering that  the  overwhelming  masses  of  the  people 

424 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

of  Russia  were  slaves  within  the  memory  of  living  men; 
remembering  that  Russian  educational  progress,  as  Amer- 
icans understand  that  term,  can  hardly  be  said  to  have 
begun  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago;  remembering  the 
wilderness  of  popular  ignorance  which  education  had  to 
penetrate  throughout  the  empire,  it  is  the  contention  of 
patriotic  Russians  that  education  among  the  common 
people  of  the  empire  has  made  very  respectable  progress 
and  that  the  present  outlook  is  decidedly  hopeful.  It  is 
certain  that,  in  estimating  the  quality  and  weight  of  this 
people  in  the  coming  affairs  of  the  world,  other  nations 
must  understand  that,  speaking  in  historical  terms,  they 
must  reckon  with  Russia  as  a  consolidated  nation,  whose 
peasant  masses  can  read  and  write  and  think,  and  whose 
intellectual  advance,  while  slow,  like  all  the  massed  move- 
ments of  the  Slav,  is  steady,  continuous,  and  increasing, 
and  also  like  the  characteristics  of  Russian  advance  in 
every  other  direction. 


XXIX 

THREE    RUSSIANS    OF    WORLD    FAME 

THE  subjects  of  the  Czar  number  one  hundred  and 
forty  million  souls.  Out  of  these  one  hundred  and 
forty  million  human  beings,  three  men  loom  so  vastly 
that  they  have  taken  the  attention  of  the  entire  con- 
temporary world.  So  true  is  this  that  it  is  no  im- 
moderate simile  to  say  that  they  are  three  mountain 
peaks,  rising  sharp  and  clear  and  to  far  heights  out  of  the 
steppes  and  plains  made  up  of  the  masses  of  Russia's 
millions.  Two  of  these  three  men  were  the  most  de- 
termined upholders  of  the  theory  and  practice  of  autoc- 
racy. One  of  these  three  men  is  the  most  determined 
opponent  now  living  of  the  government  of  the  Czar  and 
of  all  government.  Two  of  these  men  are  the  ablest 
minds  to  whom  the  Czar  looks  for  counsel  and  the  strong- 
est wills  that  guard  his  throne;  one  of  these  three  is  the 
incessant  protestor  against  the  plans,  policies,  and  pur- 
poses of  his  sovereign. 

It  is  a  striking  and  significant  fact  that  the  two  of  these 
three  men  who  are  the  Czar's  ablest  and  most  efficient 
helpers,  as  well  as  the  most  determined  believers  in 
autocracy  as  the  only  correct  theory  of  government,  came 
from  the  common  people,  and  rose  through  a  series  of 
lowly  stations  to  the  seats  of  the  mighty;  while  the  one 
of  the  three  who  objects,  protests,  denounces,  is  one  of 
the  great  nobles  of  the  empire,  belonging  to  one  of 
Russia's  oldest  and  most  illustrious  lordly  houses.  The 
first  two  are  of  the  common  people  in  birth,  of  the  common 
people,  too,  in  toil  and  struggle;  but  of  the  autocracy  by 

426 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

virtue  of  their  very  natures,  by  force  of  their  astonishing 
wills,  and  by  reason  of  their  firm  and  almost  fanatical 
convictions.  The  other  one  of  these  three  men  is  by 
birth  an  aristocrat  of  the  aristocrats,  by  training  and 
early  life,  again,  an  aristocrat  of  the  aristocrats;  but  by 
his  very  nature  a  socialist,  and  by  conviction  more  fanat- 
ical than  the  autocratic  convictions  of  the  other  two,  an 
aggressive  disbeliever  in  every  form  of  human  govern- 
ment which  maintains  itself  by  force,  no  matter  whether 
that  government  be  republican  or  monarchial. 

These  three  men  are  Leo  Tolstoi,  Sergius  Witte,  and 
Constantine  Pobyedonostseff — Tolstoi,  the  noble,  whom 
nature,  conviction,  and  desire  have  made  a  peasant; 
Witte  and  Pobyedonostseff,  whom  nature,  conviction,  and 
desire  have  made  the  high  officers  of  autocracy. 

In  considering  these  three  men,  we  note  that,  first  of  all, 
there  are  certain  similarities.  Each  is  equally  dogmatic. 
Each  is  equally  sure  that  he  is  right  and  that  everybody 
else  is  wrong.  Each  is  an  autocrat  of  nature's  making. 
Neither  is  acquainted  with  the  verb  "to  fail."  Neither 
believes  in  the  word  "impossible."  And  all  of  them  are 
intensely  unpopular. 

A  charming  bit  of  rural  Russia  are  the  gently  rolling 
slopes  and  woods  that  lead  up  to  Tolstoi's  estates.  Al- 
most in  sight  of  them  an  immense  manufacturing  es- 
tablishment has  been  erected,  and  it  is  to  this  which 
Count  Tolstoi  refers  in  his  article  in  the  North  American 
Revieiv  of  April,  1901.  It  is  a  splendid  road  over  which 
your  troika  dashes  until  within  full  view  of  Count  Tolstoi's 
house— one  of  the  few  excellent  roads  of  Russia.  Before 
entering  Tolstoi's  grounds  you  turn  from  this  splendid 
highway  onto  a  dirt  road  that  leads  down  between  mod- 
est hills,  green  with  grass  or  proud  with  noble  forest, 
and  pass  through  a  valley.  On  the  left  are  fields,  and 
peasants  at  work.  From  this  valley  the  ground  rises 
by  easy  elevation  to  a  knoll,  concealed  and  adorned  with 
great  trees.     The  road  leads  directly  between  two  massive 

427 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

stone  pillars,  which,  however,  support  no  gate.  One 
of  them  perceptibly  leans  out  of  plumb.  A  heavy  mud- 
hole,  just  before  you  pass  between  them,  has  been  has- 
tily filled  in.  A  little  pond  or  lakelet  to  the  left,  with 
all  the  possibilities  of  loveliness,  is  muddy  and  unat- 
tractive. To  the  right  a  smaller  pond  is  covered  with 
patches  of  green  scum.  An  avenue  of  trees,  cathedral- 
like, border  and  bend  above  the  roadway  leading  from 
the  entrance  to  the  crest  of  the  hill,  where  the  build- 
ings are.  The  roadway  itself  has  not  seen  gravel  for  a 
long  time,  and  is  full  of  furrows  and  ruts.  The  house, 
painted  white,  and  with  vines  climbing  up  the  slender 
pillars  of  the  porch,  is  modest.  There  is  an  open  space 
just  before  it,  then  more  trees,  and  then  beyond  another 
house,  where  the  son  of  the  great  Autocrat  of  Protest  has 
his  residence.  Beyond  this  are  the  stables.  Upon  the 
other  side  of  the  house  is  the  great  square  common  to 
pretentious  Russian  country  homes,  surrounded  by  a 
broad  and  generous  walk  or  avenue,  which  is  bordered  on 
either  side  by  splendid  trees. 

Before  the  Count  has  risen  you  will  have  time  to  visit 
the  peasant  village  across  the  ravine.  There  are  two 
or  three  brick  houses,  of  a  single  story,  of  course,  in 
its  long,  broad  street.  They  seem  to  be  evidence  of 
some  spurt  of  activity  many  years  ago.  They  are  neglect- 
ed now.  Most  of  the  cottages  are  neglected,  too.  Poverty, 
want  of  care,  rebellion  at  system  are  visible  on  every 
side.  The  peasants  look  poor  and  ill  -  dressed.  A  leg- 
less beggar  cries  piteously  for  alms.  Conditions  of  non- 
improvement  and  degeneration  are  so  pronounced  that 
your  mind  reverts  to  another  peasant  village,  on  the 
estate  of  a  certain  noble,  not  two  hundred  miles  away — 
clean,  well  built,  well  kept,  industrious,  with  yards  and 
vines  and  fruit;  and,  in  the  midst  of  all,  a  little  school- 
house,  with  desks  and  benches,  for  all  the  world  like  an 
American  country  school-house  many  years  ago. 

Some  beggars  are  seated  beneath  the  tree,  immediately 

428 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

in  front  of  Tolstoi's  door.  They  enter  while  you  wait, 
and  then  return  apparently  pleased.  Soon  Count  Tolstoi 
comes  out  himself.  What  a  mighty  man  he  must  have 
been  in  his  youth!  What  a  mighty  mind  still  glows 
through  those  clear  and  cold,  gray  eyes!  The  front-head 
IS  a  dome  where  thought  dwells;  but  the  back-head,  too, 
is  powerful — a  thing  so  often  absent  in  mere  thinkers. 
This  man,  you  are  sure,  will  never  be  content  merely  to 
think — he  must  do.  And  the  face — it  is  the  face  of  de- 
termination itself.  William  Lloyd  Garrison  had  such  a 
face.  The  spirit  of  Garrison  is  there — "  I  will  not  equivo- 
cate, I  will  not  retreat  a  single  inch,  and  I  w411  be  heard." 

The  garb  of  the  man  fits  in  v/ell  with  the  picture  of  his 
mentality  and  character.  It  is  a  coarse,  cool,  bluish  stuff; 
trousers  thrust,  after  the  Russian  manner,  into  the  top- 
boots;  the  simple  blouse  belted;  no  collar  to  conceal  the 
shrunken  but  yet  sinewy  neck.  To  be  sure,  the  physical 
appearance  of  the  man  is  not  remarkable ;  on  the  contrary, 
it  is  typical.  You  may  see  thousands  upon  thousands  of 
Russian  peasants  who  look  like  Tolstoi;  but  let  his  per- 
sonality seize  upon  you  and  you  will  see  no  person  who 
looks  like  Tolstoi.  It  is  a  personality  to  compel  and 
repel.  It  is  mentality  which  does  not  compromise  or 
argue,  but  announces. 

More  charming  manners  cannot  be  imagined.  He  has 
the  courtesy  of  nature — of  the  trees,  the  flowers,  and  the 
breezes  of  the  spring.  Like  every  great  man,  he  is  simple ; 
but  there  is  a  touch  of  the  grandeur  of  the  old-time  fash- 
ion about  him,  too.  And  as  you  walk  with  him  among 
the  stately  avenues  of  trees,  and  listen  to  his  large  con- 
versation on  great  topics,  the  vastness  of  the  man  looms 
up — vast  in  his  conceptions,  vast  in  his  fanaticism,  vast 
in  his  dogmatism — above  all,  vast  in  his  utter  fearlessness. 

He  talks  about  great  things  from  the  very  first  sen- 
tence and  without  any  invitation.  No  trivialities  for 
him.  It  is  unnecessary,  of  course,  for  Americans,  who 
have  so  thoroughly  read  Tolstoi  to  recount  his   views. 

429 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Some  passages,  from  a  half-day's  listening  to  his  words, 
may  serve  to  vitalize  the  printed  page,  however.  The 
subject  of  first  interest  to  him  is  his  own  land;  the  sub- 
ject of  next  interest  to  him  is  America — not  that  he  ap- 
proves of  our  institutions,  for  he  does  not.  He  is  in  as 
complete  revolt  against  our  form  of  government  as  against 
all  other  forms  of  government.  And  for  our  material 
development  he  has  nothing  but  contempt. 

"You  are  given  over  to  material  things,"  said  he. 
"Your  forces  seem  to  be  spent  on  mills  and  railroads  and 
the  like.  None  of  your  great  minds  is  now  engaged  in 
literature.  The  literary  productions  of  America  to-day 
are  trivial — foolish.  And  in  your  statesmen  there  has 
been  a  decadence  almost  appalling.  From  Lincoln  and 
the  men  of  that  time  to  your  present  public  men  has  been 
a  dreadful  descent. 

"Who  are  your  writers  now?"  he  asked.  Upon  their 
being  named,  he  recognized  two  or  three,  and  the  rest, 
he  declared,  he  never  heard  of.  He  put  the  stamp  of 
"trivial"  on  most  he  knew  of.  Henry  George  he  ex- 
cepted, with  enthusiasm.  Whittier,  he  admitted,  had  a 
nobility  of  purpose  and  felicity  of  expression  that  lifted 
him  out  of  the  ordinary.  So  had  Emerson.  He  men- 
tioned Thomas  Paine's  Common  Sense,  the  Age  of  Reason, 
the  Rights  of  Mail — he  had  read  one  of  these  and  wanted 
the  others.  "He  is  your  greatest  mind,"  said  Tolstoi. 
"Paine  was  profound  and  truthful,  and  dealt  with  funda- 
mental things.  Paine  was  worth  while.  So  is  Henry 
George.  He  is  dead,  is  he  not?  Too  bad.  Your  country 
and  the  world  lost  one  of  its  greatest  thinkers  when  he  died. 
Both  of  these  men  had  something  of  a  conception  of  the 
wrong  of  governments  and  society,  as  now  understood." 

It  was  not  a  far  cry  from  the  subject  of  Paine  to  the 
subject  of  religion  in  general.  Questions  are  unnecessary. 
His  vivid  mind  burns  steadily  and  needs  not  the  fuel  of 
interrogation.  Of  the  Saviour  he  spoke  reverently  but 
not  worshipfully.  "Christ,"  said  he,  "the  last  great  super- 

430 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

stition."  Did  he  not  think  Him  divine?  "Divine?  Cer- 
tainly not,  except  as  all  great  teachers  are  divine;  not 
otherwise."  Inspired?  "Yes,  as  all  great  teachers  are  in- 
spired, and  not  otherwise."  That  He  is  the  literal  Son  of 
God,  that  there  was  immaculate  conception,  that  His 
agony  saves  people?  "Superstition,  superstition!"  "The 
sacraments  of  the  Church,  founded  upon  the  doctrine  of 
his  body  and  blood,  are  disgusting  and  foolish.  But  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  is  the  greatest  teacher  mankind  has  yet 
produced."    Such  was  the  tenor  of  the  talk. 

The  failure  to  apply  the  teachings  of  Christ  to  the  con- 
crete activities  of  every  day  was  an  easy  transition.  "All 
rulers  are  usurpers,"  he  said.  But  did  he  not  think  order 
and  law  were  necessary?  "What  order  or  what  law  does 
Nature  give?  Such  as  she  gives  is  enough,  and  anything 
more  is  irrational  and  artificial."  The  courts  are  points 
upon  which  his  hostility  is  especially  focused.  Did  he  not 
think  that  the  introduction  of  the  jury  system  into  Russia 
was  a  far  step  towards  the  protection  of  popular  rights  and 
liberties?  "The  jury,"  he  exclaimed — "a  jury  is  worse 
than  a  czar.^  It  is  just  twelve  times  worse,  for  it  is  twelve 
czars.  What  right  have  twelve  men  to  sit  in  judgment  upon 
another,  more  than  one  man?"  According  to  the  words 
of  the  Scriptures,  "Judge  not,  that  ye  be  not  judged," 
was  suggested.  "Yes,  that  is  it;  but  it  is  even  deeper. 
We  are  all  here  in  a  state  of  nature.  We  have  been  per- 
verted by  artificial  things.  Let  us  return  to  a  state  of 
nature.    Who  gave  man  authority  over  his  fellow-men?" 

But  would  he  have  no  restraint?  "No;  none  at  all." 
No  matter  what  was  the  cause  of  violence,  would  he  have 
no  restraint?     "No;  none  whatever." 

"The  statesmanship  of  Russian  statesmen  is  stupid. 
No  other  word  describes  it.  The  maintenance  of  our 
great  armies  is  unnecessary  and  outrageous.     All  war  is 

'  Notwithstanding  Tolstoi's  antagonism  to  all  government  by 
force,  it  is  said  that  the  Czar  is  very  fond  of  him,  and  that  Tolstoi 
is  the  ardent  personal  friend  of  the  Czar. 

43^ 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

murder.  The  extension  of  our  power  over  Manchuria, 
and  the  whole  Chinese  business,  are  without  reason  or 
sense.     What  good  will  it  do?" 

"  It  is  too  bad  to  see  our  statesmen  following  in  the  foot- 
steps of  yours  in  the  matter  of  manufacturing  and  com- 
mercialism in  general.  Look  at  the  hideous  smoke-stacks 
of  the  great  factories  that  are  now  scattered  over  Russia. 
They  disfigure  God's  landscape."  Count  Tolstoi's  whole 
talk  here  was  Ruskinesque.  Turning  to  the  economic  and 
political  features  of  the  manufacturing  advance  of  Russia, 
he  said:  "It  is  all  a  mistake.  We  have  more  than  a  hun- 
dred million  people.  Scarcely  more  than  one  million  of  these 
are  engaged  in  manufacturing."  (He  did  not  mean  the 
hand  manufacturing  done  by  the  "  kustar  trades  " — that  he 
approved  of.)  "How  unjust  that  the  remainder  should 
be  burdened  for  these  few !  Our  country  is  naturally  ag- 
ricultural. We  are  an  agricultural  people.  No  good  can 
come  from  turning  us  away  from  the  natural  current  of 
our  capabilities  and  physical  condition."  Tariffs  are  his 
particular  abomination.  "Tariffs,"  he  said,  "are  un- 
natural. They  are  a  pitiable  artificiality  to  secure  selfish 
ends.  They  keep  the  people  of  the  world  from  mingling 
with  one  another." 

"You  are  still  having  trouble  in  the  PhiHppines,  are 
you  not?  What  is  the  condition  there?"*  He  was  ex- 
tremely curious  about  our  progress  in  the  archipelago. 
" It  is  all  a  mistake,"  commented  he;  "so  is  England's  ex- 
periment in  India,  South  Africa — every  place.  So  is  ours 
in  China.  I  do  not  consider  that  the  so-called  civilizing 
effects  of  the  more  advanced  peoples  justify,  from  any 
point  of  view,  the  government  of  another.  Let  them  be 
as  nature  made  them.  If  they  are  happier  in  their  naked- 
ness and  beneath  their  palm-trees,  let  them  remain  so. 
It  is  not  important  that  they  do  not  develop  the  resources 
of  the  countries  where  nature  has  placed  them.     If  nature 

*This  conversation  occurred  in  June,  1901. 
432 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

has  placed  mineral  and  wood  and  other  things  there, 
nature  also  placed  them  there.  They  may  be  better 
clothed,  better  fed,  understand  more  under  so-called  civ- 
ilized administration,  but  a  bird  in  a  cage  is  not  as  happy 
as  one  on  the  wing,  no  matter  how  gilded  the  cage  may 
be." 

Referring  to  the  famous  letter  printed  by  the  London 
Times,  which  he  was  represented  as  having  sent  to  the 
Czar  and  his  ministers,  Count  Tolstoi  said  that  it  was  true 
that  he  had  written  and  sent  this  letter.  "Why  not?" 
said  he.  "Why  should  I  not  say  what  I  think  and  what 
I  please?" 

Such  were  the  general  tenor,  atmosphere,  and  character 
of  his  remarkable  conversation.  It  was  protest  against 
everything  in  the  existing  order,  including  religion.  Witte 
he  regarded  as  a  foohsh  surface  juggler,  and  Pobyedo- 
nostseff  as  the  intellectual  incarnation  of  tyranny.  Any 
one,  by  reading  certain  of  Tolstoi's  later  writings,  such  as 
his  North  American  Review  article  of  April,  1901,  may  re- 
produce for  himself  the  conversation  which  he  would  be 
sure  to  have  with  this  fearless  Russian  idealist  and  great- 
est of  modern  literary  artists.  His  mind  does  not  now 
dwell  with  any  particular  pride  on  his  immortal  creations 
of  fiction.  One  gets  the  impression  that  he  considers 
them  trivial  also — trivial,  at  least,  in  comparison  with  what 
he  feels  to  be  the  mature  thought  of  his  advanced  years. 
And  all  of  his  thought  now  is  of  fundamental  reforms 
which  search  out  the  very  heart  of  things.  Of  recent 
years,  and  at  the  present  time,  he  has  given  attention 
chiefly  to  the  problem  of  education.  He  thinks  very  poor- 
ly of  our  methods  of  education.  Curiously  enough,  on  this 
point  his  mind  coincides  somewhat  with  that  of  Pobyedo- 
nostseff ,  his  great  antagonist.  Both  of  them  seem  to 
agree  that  the  important  thing  is  to  instruct  the  people  in 
morals,  but  when  they  come  to  what  morals  mean  and 
how  to  teach  them  their  minds  instantly  fly  apart  again. 

Hasty  though  this  sketch  of  Tolstoi  is,  space  must  be 
»8  433 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

taken  for  the  mention  of  one  without  whom  Tolstoi,  with 
all  his  genius,  all  his  art,  all  his  fanatical  will,  would 
not  be  so  well  knoum  to  the  world.  That  person  is  Tol- 
stoi's wife.  It  could  be  well  wished  that  some  person 
sufficiently  familiar  might  write  a  volume  on  the  subject 
of  the  wife  of  this  greatest  literary  artist  which  the  nine- 
teenth century  has  produced.  Tolstoi  himself  is  no  ex- 
ception to  those  weaknesses  which  genius  everywhere,  in 
some  form  or  other,  displays — a  neghgence  of  his  affairs, 
which,  if  some  person  did  not  attend  to  them  for  him, 
would  soon  starve  him  out,  and  an  almost  abnormal 
dissatisfaction  with  his  own  work. 

For  be  it  known  that  Tolstoi's  great  novels,  such  as 
Anna  Karanina,  War  and  Peace,  and  the  like,  have  been 
rewritten  time  and  time  again  before  they  were  given  to 
the  world.  It  happens  that  the  great  dreamer's  hand- 
writing is  almost  undecipherable.  It  is  current  that  he  has 
difficulty  sometimes  in  reading  it  himself.  There  is  only 
one  person  in  Russia  that  can  read  every  word  that  he 
writes,  and  that  person  is  his  wife.  Every  piece  of  liter- 
ary work  that  Tolstoi  has  ever  done  has  been  copied,  from 
the  first  word  to  the  last,  by  this  devoted  woman.  It  is 
said,  on  good  authority,  that  she  copied  over  her  hus- 
band's novel,  War  and  Peace,  no  fewer  than  six  times. 
Anna  Karanina  she  transcribed  several  times.  If  the  read- 
er will  pick  up  a  copy  of  either  of  these  novels,  and  think 
what  it  means  to  write  out  every  word  of  them,  the  reader 
will  understand  the  enormous  labor  performed  by  the  wife 
of  Tolstoi.  If  the  reader  will  then  reflect  that  these  two 
novels  are  only  a  portion  of  his  voluminous  work,  some 
dim  comprehension  will  be  secured  of  the  world's  debt  to 
this  silent  partner  of  the  most  famous  man  the  Slav  race 
has  produced,  excepting  only  Peter  the  Great. 

And  this  is  only  a  portion  of  her  labors.  She  it  is  who 
prevented  Tolstoi  from  transferring  every  foot  of  his  es- 
tates to  the  peasantry  and  leaving  himself  and  his  family 
without  a  roof  of  their  own.     She  it  is  who  personally 

434 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

manages  his  still  considerable  holdings.  She  it  is  who 
attends  to  every  item  of  the  Count's  finances.  She  it  is 
who  sees  to  the  income  from  the  literary  product  of  her 
famous  husband's  amazing  mind.  For  it  must  be  known 
that  if  Tolstoi  could  have  his  way  every  word  he  writes 
would  be  given  to  the  world  without  the  slightest  reward. 
Tolstoi  thinks  that  no  man  has  a  right  to  put  a  price  upon 
his  thought.  Keeping  in  the  background,  doing  her  work 
with  patience  and  in  silence,  the  wife  of  Tolstoi  is  not  only 
his  helpmeet,  in  the  marital  sense  of  that  term,  not  only 
his  amanuensis,  his  financier,  his  comforter;  she  is  his  very 
preserver. 

Whether  she  agrees  or  disagrees  with  her  husband's 
views  is  not  known,  except  that  she  bitterly  resents  the 
action  of  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church  in  excommunicating 
him,  not  so  much  on  account  of  the  excommunication 
itself  as  on  account  of  its  results.  But  whether  this 
glorious  woman  is  in  agreement  or  antagonism  with  her 
husband's  opinions  and  life,  the  love,  aid,  comfort,  and 
protection  with  which  she  has  surrounded  him  form  one 
of  the  noblest  and  most  beautiful  stories  afforded  by  the 
household  life  of  any  great  man  of  the  nineteenth  and 
twentieth  centuries. 

The  statement  had  been  published  throughout  the 
United  States  in  1901  that  Count  Tolstoi  was  banished. 
Of  course,  this  was  not  true.  He  lives  at  his  home  in  the 
country,  some  miles  beyond  Tula,  goes  to  town  when  he 
likes,  to  Moscow  when  he  wishes,  and  in  general,  so  far 
as  could  be  observed,  has  as  perfect  personal  liberty  of 
movement  and  even  speech  as  is  enjoyed  by  a  citizen  of 
the  United  States.  He  was  excommunicated  by  the 
Church;  but  denying,  as  he  does,  and  with  violence,  every 
teaching  of  that  institution — denying  even  the  divinity 
of  Christ — it  appears  to  the  impartial  inquirer  that  the 
Church  could  take  no  other  action.  As  has  been  re- 
marked in  another  chapter,  the  same  thing  has  been 
done  many  thousands  of  times  by  the  various  denomina- 

435 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

tions  of  the  United  States,  where  their  members  dissented 
from  their  doctrines,  for  a  much  milder  offence  and  on 
far  less  material  points  than  is  the  case  with  Tolstoi  and 
the  Greek  Orthodox  Church.  Believing  nothing  that  the 
Church  teaches,  asserting  even,  with  all  the  fearlessness 
of  his  volcanic  nature,  that  its  teachings  are  false  in  fact 
and  ruinous  in  practice — teaching  this  in  every  way  and 
on  every  .occasion,  how  could  the  Church  itself  retain  him 
as  a  member? 

Such  is  the  Autocrat  of  Protest  in  Russia.  But  he  is 
not  popular  even  among  those  who  are  in  favor  of  im- 
provement in  many  features  of  the  Russian  government 
and  generally  feel  that  the  continuance  of  the  advanced 
ideas  begun  by  Alexander  the  Liberator  is  desirable.  For 
example,  an  informing  conversation  occurred  among 
several  Russian  gentlemen;  but  whether  liberal  or  re- 
actionary, there  was  general  condemnation  of  Tolstoi's 
theories.  "He  is  erratic,  impossible,  impracticable,  and 
thus  delays  by  unwise  insistence  upon  fanatic  propositions 
any  real  practical  advance,"  said  a  brilliant  man  who 
was  himself  a  Hberal.  "His  power  among  extremists  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  because  of  his  outspokenness  and 
radicahsm  his  name  has  become  the  flag  of  revolt,"  was 
the  way  a  highly  educated  officer  put  it.  Thus,  the  cur- 
rent of  talk  among  Russians  who  would  Hke  to  see  some 
things  bettered  cannot  be  said  to  be  favorable  to  Tolstoi. 
Nevertheless,  all  concede  his  splendid  abilities,  and  it  is 
easy  to  see  that  all  Russians  are  proud  of  this  the  greatest 
intellect  the  Slav  race  has  produced.  Even  where  you 
will  hear  emphatic  dissent  from  Tolstoi's  more  violent 
opinions,  you  will  be  astonished  to  find  that  the  very  man 
who  thus  denounces  the  views  of  Tolstoi  the  dreamer  is  a 
warm  and  even  affectionate  friend  of  Tolstoi  the  man. 

"Oh  yes,  we  all  know  here  that  Tolstoi  is  down  on  the 
Saviour,"  said  one  of  the  most  accomphshed  women  of 
the  empire — one  of  the  inner  circle  of  the  highest  nobility, 
and,  of  course,  a  stanch  adherent  of  the  government. 

436 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

"  It  is  said,  you  know,  that  Tolstoi  is  jealous  of  Christ.    It 
will  end  with  him  trying  to  establish  a  religion  of  his  own." 

This  keen  and  witty  woman's  observations  are  a  very 
fair  reflection  of  the  opinion  the  cultivated  class  entertains 
of  Russia's  greatest  writer. 

"Oh,"  said  a  wealthy  young  merchant  of  Moscow, 
"Tolstoi  is  impossible.  We  pay  no  attention  to  him 
here."  Several  peasants  expressed  utter  indifference  to 
him,  and  knew  little  or  nothing  about  his  teachings.  Here 
and  there  you  will  find  a  Russian  of  the  common  people 
who  knows  something  of  him,  but  from  such  information 
as  could  be  gathered  it  appeared  that  he  has  not  yet 
reached  even  the  fringe  of  the  vast  masses  of  Russians. 
Such,  at  least,  was  the  result  of  the  inquiries  which  the 
writer  was  able  to  make,  which  were  too  few,  perhaps, 
and  too  superficial  to  be  the  ba.sis  of  valuable  judgment. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  must  be  stated  that  others  who  have 
made  more  careful  inquiry  state  that  among  the  peasantry 
Tolstoi  is  beloved  and  reverenced  as  the  "good  old  man" 
who  is  thinking  of  them  and  wants  to  help  them.  An 
incident  was  related  by  such  an  observer  of  a  peasant 
who,  upon  being  asked  about  Tolstoi,  referred  to  him  with 
childlike  affection  as  "the  father  of  the  peasant,"  who 
knew  what  was  best  for  them.  But  it  is  believed  that  so 
far  as  his  name  has  penetrated  into  the  homes  of  the 
Russian  peasantry,  it  stands  for  some  vague  good,  with- 
out any  definite  notions  of  what  that  good  is. 

But  whichever  view  may  be  correct,  it  is  certain  that 
the  influence  of  Tolstoi  upon  Russian  thought  and  opinion 
is  not  yet  so  great  as  it  is  upon  the  thought  and  opinion 
of  non-Russian  nations,  and  especially  the  American 
people.  As  factors  influencing  Russian  policy  and  Rus- 
sian tendencies,  it  is  doubted  whether  Tolstoi  and  his 
work  are  yet  appreciable.  Indeed,  it  is  doubted  whether 
Tolstoi  himself  thinks  that  he  is  accomplishing  anytliing 
or  will  accomplish  anything  during  the  present  generation 
or  the  next.     He  is  looking  to  the  future. 

437 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

"All  this  wrong  and  folly  are  but  passing  phases,"  said 
he.  "The  people  of  the  world  two  hundred  years  from 
now  will  be  as  much  surprised  that  we  endure  many  of 
the  things  which  are  now  considered  as  admirable  parts 
of  our  civilizations  as  we  are  amazed  at  many  of  the 
horrid  practices  of  the  dark  ages." 

As  a  force  to  be  estimated  in  weighing  Russian  activities 
in  the  world  at  the  present  hour,  this  wonderful  man 
may  be  left  out  of  account.  That  he  is  a  splendid  dreamer 
of  an  ideal  reign  of  peace  and  brotherhood  over  all  the 
earth  will  be  admitted  even  by  his  worst  enemies  in 
Russia  itself.  But  his  dreams  are  as  yet  nothing  more 
than  dreams.  And  so,  with  his  dreaming,  we  may  leave 
him  to  turn  to  the  two  other  overpowering  personalities 
of  Russia,  who  are  intellects  of  equal  vigor,  wills  of 
equal  dogmatism,  and  who,  in  addition,  are  the  most 
effective  present  forces  of  the  empire. 

Of  these  let  us  first  consider  Sergius  Witte  —  the  in- 
carnation of  the  practical,  the  personification  of  the  busi- 
ness and  commercial  spirit  of  Russia,  the  business-man 
of  the  empire,  the  first  modem,  up-to-date  financier  and 
administrator  Russia  has  yet  produced.  This  is  the  man 
who  took  the  almost  Orientally  disorganized  finances  of 
Russia  in  hand  and  reduced  them,  first,  to  a  system  along 
recognized  lines  of  sound  economics,  and  finally  estab- 
lished the  gold  standard.  This  is  the  man  through  whose 
influence  the  government  has  become  the  owner  and 
operator  of  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  railroad  mileage 
of  the  empire.  This  is  the  man  who  has  adjusted  tariffs 
on  imports  along  the  lines  of  radical  protection  for  the 
purpose  of  building  up  Russian  industry.  This  is  the 
man  who  is  determined  that  Russia  shall  herself  manu- 
facture everything  the  Russian  people  need.  He  it  is  who 
has  taken  in  charge  the  monopoly  of  vodka.  He  is  the 
chief  inspiration  of  the  "working-man's  palace"  in  St. 
Petersburg  and  of  similar  movements  throughout  the 
empire.     He   is   the   controlling  mind   that   directs   the 

438 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

construction  of  the  great  Manchurian  railway.  He 
negotiates  all  the  loans  for  the  Russian  government. 
His  eye  is  upon  every  manufacturing  establishment 
throughout  the  Czar's  dominions.  He  is  reforming  the 
laws  of  mines  and  mining  everywhere.  It  is  Witte  who 
has  draughted  the  most  comprehensive  employer's  lia- 
bility law  in  Europe.  Silent,  taciturn,  relentless,  im- 
movable, his  personality  has  gradually  grown  upon  the 
statesmen  and  financiers  of  other  nations,  until  only 
two  other  men  fill  the  imagination  of  Europe  in  equal 
measure. 

This  greatest  dreamer  of  the  present  day  will  tell  you 
that  he  has  no  use  for  dreams  or  dreamers ;  but  by  that 
he  means  those  men  who  entertain  theories  which 
cannot  be  reduced  to  facts.  "What  can  be  done?" — 
that  is  his  only  question.  Witte  is  the  man  who  "does 
things"  in  Russia. 

Perhaps  there  is  no  man  in  America  so  busy  as  he  is ; 
yet  he  does  not  appear  hurried.  He  is  a  very  tall  man, 
very  ungainly,  and,  though  stiff  in  manner,  is  cordial  with 
that  genuineness  which  captivates. 

The  first  thing  that  impresses  you  about  Witte  is  per- 
fect simplicity.  This  seems  to  be  characteristic  of  all 
extraordinary  men.  A  child  or  a  backwoodsman  or  the 
most  highly  cultivated  man  of  the  world  Cand  the  manner 
of  these  three  are  almost  the  same)  could  not  be  simpler 
than  this  powerful  minister.  He  speaks  in  a  low  voice, 
looking  directly  at  you.  What  a  steady  eye!  The  free- 
dom of  his  conversation,  in  view  of  your  previous  notions 
of  Russia  and  Russians,  astonishes  you.  There  is  not  a 
cabinet  officer  in  Washington  who  will  talk  with  the 
apparent  unreserve  of  this  chief  counsellor  of  the  Czar. 
His  eyes  are  large  and  brown,  with  an  expression  of  pa- 
tience and  weariness  about  them  which  reminds  you  of 
what  you  read  about  the  eyes  of  Lincoln.  The  eyes  are 
not  sharp  or  luminous,  but  have  the  speculative  expression 
of  those  minds  which  are  not  content  with  things  as  they 

439 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

are,  but  are  planning  and  dreaming  of  the  things  as  they 
should  be.  His  forehead  is  high,  but  not  too  high,  of 
medium  breadth;  but  between  the  ears  the  breadth  is 
perceptibly  greater,  and  the  back-head,  where  resides  the 
"drive"  of  the  human  intellect,  is  perfectly  developed. 
His  hair  is  brown,  has  a  slightly  waving  effect,  is  of  medi- 
um length,  and  is  worn  brushed  back  from  the  forehead. 
In  his  office  he  wears  a  common,  unpretentious  sack-coat, 
well-worn  trousers,  which  bag  at  the  knees,  and  shoes  that 
show  they  do  not  receive  overmuch  attention.  Every- 
thing reveals  the  characteristic  indifference  of  great  men 
for  the  details  of  personal  appearance. 

Where  Tolstoi  was  interested  in  moral  conditions,  ab- 
stractly considered,  Witte  was  interested  in  economic  con- 
ditions reduced  to  actual  facts.  Particularly  was  he  in- 
terested in  those  organizations  of  industry  known  in  our 
country  as  trusts.  Whether  they  were  over-capitalized  or 
had  sufficient  assets  behind  them  was  a  matter  to  which 
he  seemed  to  have  given  almost  as  much  thought  as  he 
had  given  to  problems  affecting  the  Russian  Empire  itself. 
But  Witte 's  interest  in  this  feature  of  trust  phenomena 
seemed  to  be  only  incidental  to  his  general  interest  in  the 
commercial  possibilities  of  these  aggregations  of  capital, 
especially  in  relation  to  foreign  trade.  How  they  were 
steadily  to  maintain  prices  appeared  to  him  to  be  a  matter 
of  real  concern.  When  it  was  suggested  that  he  was  able, 
by  government  purchases  from  steel  organizations  in  Rus- 
sia, and  other  methods,  to  influence,  and  indeed  largely 
to  maintain,  prices,  he  replied:  "Yes,  but  you  forget  that 
for  any  emergency  we  can  immediately  devise  and  put 
into  operation  a  law  which  our  world  of  people  immediately 
obey  ";  and  there  spoke  the  true  autocrat,  this  time  the 
autocrat  of  finance  and  commercialism.  Indeed,  the 
three  pre-eminent  contemporary  Russians — Tolstoi, Witte, 
and  Pobyedonostseff — may  each  be  called  an  intellectual 
autocrat— the  Autocrat  of  Protest,  the  Autocrat  of  Com- 
mercialism, and  the  Autocrat  of  Orthodoxy. 

440 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

It  will  be  hard  to  find  in  America  any  one  man  who  has 
so  many  enemies  as  this  first  of  the  Russians.  But  a 
traveller,  listening  to  the  assaults  upon  him  from  one  end 
of  the  empire  to  the  other,  cannot  but  arrive  at  the  con- 
clusion that  his  enemies  have  been  made  by  measures 
devised  for  the  good  of  the  whole  Russian  people,  from 
adherence  to  which  interested  parties  have  not  been  able 
to  shake  him.  The  result  of  these  hatreds  is  a  swarm 
of  calumnies,  most,  perhaps  all,  of  which  are  declared  by 
the  best -informed  men  to  be  maliciously  untrue.  Certain 
it  is  that  this  greatest  business-man  ever  called  to  the 
councils  of  the  Czar  is  doing  more  to  eradicate  corruption 
from  the  Russian  Empire  than  any  one  force  in  Russian 
history.  He  is  doing  this  not  by  moralizing,  but  by  the 
introduction  of  business  method  into  the  government's 
practical  administration.  A  system  of  audits  and  coun- 
ter audits  is  being  effected  which  makes  the  pocketing  of 
large  sums  of  money  by  contractors  very  difficult,  no 
matter  how  many  oflEicials  connive  at  it. 

When  he  becomes  convinced  of  corrupt  practices  in 
any  business  or  establishment,  he  does  not  hesitate  to  take 
special  methods  with  reference  to  it.  These  arbitrary 
acts  are,  of  course,  very  rare,  the  correction  of  nearly  all 
abuses  being  left  to  the  ordinary  administration  of  rights 
and  remedies  in  the  courts  of  justice. 

Witte  is  "a  pessimist  of  conditions  and  an  optimist  of 
possibilities,"  to  use  the  phrase  of  a  brilliant  writer.  In- 
deed, his  unpopularity  began  early  in  his  ministerial 
career  by  his  declaration  that  the  abounding  prosperity 
of  Russia  some  years  since  was  abnormal,  and  that  a  dis- 
astrous reaction  was  sure  to  follow.  He  plainly  told  in- 
vestors that  they  were  building  great  plants  in  Russia 
without  reckoning  with  ultimate  conditions.  He  dis- 
couraged rash  enterprise  everywhere.  In  conversation 
and  public  speech  he  proclaimed  that  the  values  of  many 
corporations'  shares,  especially  banking  concerns,  were 
swollen  and  fictitious.     His  maxim  was,  and  is,  that  any 

441 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

prosperity  which  is  unnatural  is  no  prosperity  at  all,  and 
that  it  is  the  sure  and  certain  parent  of  disaster. 

When  he  took  office  the  Russian  ruble  was  a  more  fluc- 
tuating currency  than  the  Chinese  tael.  Gambling  upon 
its  changing  value  prevailed  throughout  the  empire,  and 
indeed  all  over  Europe.  Business  was  unsettled,  invest- 
ment excited  and  feverish,  and  the  whole  commercial 
world  in  that  delirium  of  uncertain  activity  which  comes 
from  the  expectation  of  unnatural  profits  and  of  the  ele- 
ment of  chance.  Witte  called  in  the  circulation,  reduced 
it  to  a  limit,  supplied  the  well-known  principles  of  sound 
economics  to  the  currency,  and,  finally,  effected  the  coup 
of  his  career  by  placing  Russia  on  the  gold  standard,  to- 
gether with  the  great  commercial  nations  of  the  world. 
The  brief  limitations  of  this  chapter  do  not  permit  even  a 
summary  of  this  extraordinary  man's  practical  activity. 
These  instances  are  given  only  as  a  hint  of  what  he  has 
done  and  is  doing. 

His  most  ambitious  project,  next  to  the  establishment 
of  the  gold  standard,  is  the  scheme  which  is  now  being  put 
into  operation  for  taking  over  to  the  government  the 
monopoly  of  vodka.  Hereafter  the  government  is  to  con- 
trol the  manufacture,  and  actually  to  conduct  the  sale,  of 
this  universally  consumed  national  Russian  drink.  The 
conception  was  daring,  its  execution  cautious.  As  in 
every  radical  reform  in  Russia,  it  was  first  tried  in  one 
province,  and,  succeeding  there,  it  was  gradually  extended 
to  others,  being  improved  and  remedied  as  experience  and 
actual  operation  suggested.  It  has  been  said  that  the  tax 
on  vodka  maintained  the  army  and  navy  of  Russia.  This, 
of  course,  is  an  exaggeration,  but  it  is  probably  no  ex- 
aggeration that  the  profits  which  the  government  ulti- 
mately will  derive  from  its  sale  will  largely  support  the 
army  and  navy.  Together  with  this  reform,  the  govern- 
ment is  introducing  practical  temperance  measures.  The 
instance  cited  in  another  chapter  will  be  recalled,  of 
minute   instructions   to   the   district   officials   upon   the 

442 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

subject  of  temperance  of  the  people,  and  the  hterature, 
brief  and  easily  read,  to  be  distributed  to  the  people, 
found  in  the  government  offices  of  a  country  town.  The 
active  mind  behind  all  of  this  is  Witte. 

The  consequences  of  the  Russian  government's  monop- 
oly of  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  vodka  are  so  numerous, 
far-reaching,  and  radically  important  that  a  chapter,  or 
even  a  volume,  might  be  profitably  employed  in  their  de- 
scription. The  best  that  can  be  done  in  these  pages  is  to 
note  the  large  general  effects  which  are  most  striking  to 
the  observer's  eye.  First  of  all,  the  vodka-shop,  which 
hitherto  has  been  perhaps  the  most  prominent  feature  of 
every  Russian  town  or  village,  is  disappearing,  if,  indeed, 
it  has  not  already  disappeared.  These  public-houses  were 
at  once  the  opportunity  and  the  inducement  for  the  peas- 
ant to  drink.  In  these  nests  of  congenial  intoxication  the 
peasants  would  gather,  and,  imbibing  until  their  ready 
money  was  exhausted,  would  mortgage  their  belongings, 
and  even  their  apparel,  to  purchase  more  of  this  Rus- 
sian drink.  The  result  was  that  these  vodka-shops,  scat- 
tered by  the  tens  of  thousands  all  over  the  empire,  were 
centres  not  only  of  drunkenness  but  of  poverty.  All  this  is 
being  abolished,  if,  indeed,  the  process  is  not  now  entirely 
complete.  The  peasant  can  no  longer  repair  to  these 
places  of  his  fleeting  joy  and  permanent  ruin.  He  must 
buy  vodka  at  government  stores,  and  either  take  it  home 
to  drink,  or  at  least  consume  it  some  place  else  than  at  the 
place  where  he  purchases  it. 

Then,  again,  the  peasant  can  no  longer  buy  his  vodka  by 
the  drink.  He  cannot  buy  less  than  a  certain  quantity 
fixed  by  the  government.  This  quantity  of  vodka  fixed  by 
the  government  is  bottled  by  the  government  and  sealed 
by  the  government.  Thus  the  temptation  to  loiter  on 
the  premises  and  to  treat  his  fellows,  which  were  the  source 
of  much  of  the  drunkenness  of  the  Russian  people  in  for- 
mer times,  is  taken  away  from  the  peasant. 

In  the  third  place,  the  vodka  that  the  peasant  buys  un- 

443 


THE  RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

der  this  government  system  of  manufacture  and  distribu- 
tion is  comparatively  pure.  Indeed,  it  is  claimed  that  it 
is  entirely  free  from  the  poisonous  adulterations  which 
made  the  vodka  consumed  by  the  Russian  peasant  under 
the  old  system  a  terrible  and  maddening  drink.  The 
peasant  may  still  become  drunk  on  the  vodka  he  pur- 
chases at  the  government  stores,  although  the  chances  of 
his  doing  so  are  reduced  to  a  minimum  in  comparison  with 
the  certainties  existing  under  the  old  system;  but  if  he 
does  drink  to  intoxication,  his  health  will  not  suffer,  except 
as  it  is  impaired  by  the  alcohol  itself,  unmixed  with  other 
poisonous  ingredients. 

One  unexpected  result  of  the  abolition  of  the  vodka- 
shop,  or  saloon,  as  we  would  call  it  in  this  country,  grows 
out  of  the  peculiarly  social  nature  of  the  Russian  peasant. 
They  must  get  together  and  talk.  As  has  been  noted,  the 
Russian  peasant  is  the  least  solitary  of  all  human  beings. 
Apparently,  he  cannot  live  alone  even  for  a  short  time.  It 
was  this  phase  of  his  character  which  supported  the  vodka- 
shop  as  much  if  not  more  than  the  desire  to  drink.  The 
public  -  house  afforded  the  peasantry  a  common  place 
of  meeting  and  conversation.  When  these  places  were 
taken  away  from  them  their  gregarious  nature  im- 
mediately sought  a  substitute.  This  has  been  found  in 
other  public-houses  springing  up  in  place  of  the  vodka- 
shops,  where  tea,  instead  of  vodka,  is  sold,  served,  and 
consumed.  Thus  the  drinking  of  tea,  already  a  national 
habit,  is  encouraged  and  increased.  Thus,  too,  is  the 
peasant  more  and  more  weaned  from  the  vodka  habit. 

The  national  habit  of  tea-drinking  suggests  the  next 
plan  contemplated  by  this  constructive  Russian  states- 
man. This  plan  is  to  make  the  sale  and  distribution  of 
tea  a  government  monopoly.  Already  this  plan  has  been 
matured,  although  not  yet  put  into  practice.  Already, 
too,  it  is  arousing  bitter  protest,  for  the  tea-dealers  of 
Russia  are  numerous,  and  everybody  consumes  tea.  From 
the  highest  nobleman  to  the  humblest  peasant  the  one 

444 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

necessity,  next  to  bread  itself,  appears  to  be  tea.  It  is 
probably  true  that  a  gallon  of  tea  is  consumed  by  the 
people  of  Russia  to  every  pint  of  plain  water  they  drink. 
Witte  reasons  that,  from  a  moral  point  of  view,  the  dealers 
have  no  more  right  to  derive  private  profit  from  the  ne- 
cessity of  the  people  than  they  have  to  enrich  themselves 
by  sale  of  common  drinking-water.  From  a  financial 
point  of  view,  he  reasons  that  in  the  sale  of  this  common 
article  of  consumption  the  government  could  fill  its  treas- 
ury with  an  unfailing  stream  of  taxation,  which  would 
not  be  felt  by  those  who  paid  it.  From  the  point  of  view 
of  economics  and  human  interest,  he  argued  that  a  better 
quality  of  tea  would  be  supplied  by  the  government,  at  a 
cheaper  price,  to  Russia's  one  hundred  and  forty  millions 
than  by  irresponsible  dealers,  whose  object,  of  course,  is  to 
sell  the  poorest  article  at  the  highest  possible  price.  And 
so  it  is  said  to  have  been  decided  that  the  government  of 
Russia  will  go  into  the  tea  business,  just  as  it  has  gone 
into  the  liquor  business,  and  just  as  it  has  gone  into  the 
railway  business,  except  that  the  tea-houses  which  have 
taken  the  place  of  the  vodka-shops  are  not  to  be  abolished. 

It  is  said  by  many  that  the  tea  monopoly  will  not  be 
carried  into  practice,  although  plans  for  it  have  been  per- 
fected in  minute  detail.  The  best  information,  however, 
is  that  when  the  time  arrives  which  the  government 
thinks  most  suitable  for  introducing  its  plan,  it  will  be 
put  into  effect  in  much  the  same  manner  that  the  vodka 
reform  was  consummated.  If  this  is  done,  it  will  mean 
that  the  Russian  government  has  gone  into  a  business 
of  stupendous  proportions,  even  when  compared  with  its 
other  vast  undertakings  of  a  similar  character. 

The  largest  owner  and  operator  of  railwaj'S  in  the  world, 
the  largest  dealer  in  alcoholic  liquors  in  the  world.  Rus- 
sia, will,  if  the  tea  monopoly  is  undertaken,  become  a 
greater  buyer  and  seller  of  tea  than  all  other  dealers  of 
the  world  put  together.  Should  this  process  continue, 
it  requires  no  seer  to  behold  the  development  of  Russia 

445 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

into  a  communistic  state.  But  it  is  no  dreamer,  no 
enthusiast,  no  excited  lecturer  who  is  accompHshing  these 
visions  of  sociaHsm;  it  is  the  hardest -headed,  clearest- 
eyed,  most  modern  business -man  that  Russia  has  ever 
produced  who  is  working  out  into  practical  results  what 
the  world  has  heretofore  regarded  as  the  idle  fancies  of 
pure  imagination. 

These  are  some  of  the  monumental  achievements  of 
Sergius  Witte  in  the  realms  of  Russian  practical  states- 
manship. Any  one  of  them  would  be  suflficient  to  estab- 
lish the  fame  of  any  American  public  man.  But  these 
gigantic  plans  already  accomplished  are  not  the  full 
measure  of  Witte's  activities.  The  tariff  protector  of 
Russian  manufacturing  interests  and  their  special  cham- 
pion, Witte  is,  possibly,  even  more  concerned  in  the  in- 
dustrial welfare  of  the  Russian  agriculturalist.  Observing 
the  needs  of  the  Russian  peasant,  only  recently  freed  from 
slavery,  Witte  has  established  a  reserve  fund  from  which, 
time  and  again,  the  government  has  loaned  the  peasantry 
many  millions  of  rubles  each  year,  in  those  provinces 
where  drought  and  failure  of  crops  have  reduced  the  peas- 
ant farmers  to  serious  straits.  It  is  said  also  that  he  is 
the  inspiration  of  the  commissions  which  of  recent  years 
have  been  studying  the  causes  of  Russian  agricultural  de- 
pression and  attempting  to  devise  remedies  therefor.  In 
short,  where  there  are  practical  things  to  be  done  in  the 
realms  of  finance,  manufacturing,  agriculture,  transporta- 
tion, empire  building,  Witte's  mind  and  hand  are  present. 

One  of  the  defects  of  Russian  administration  has  been 
the  variances  of  the  ministry.  One  minister's  plans  would 
interfere  with  those  of  another,  and  there  were  constant 
strife  and  contention,  so  that,  instead  of  statesmanship 
with  a  common  purpose  and  all  forces  in  accord,  there  have 
been  heterogeneous  and  confused  adoption  and  execution 
of  divergent  schemes.  It  needed  a  strong  hand  and  a 
master-mind  to  consolidate  the  ministry.-  This  Witte  has 
nearly  accomplished,  and  that,  too,  by  sheer  force  of 

446 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

reason.  The  Czar  shows  that  rarest  instinct  of  rulers, 
and  that  most  necessary  one,  of  knowing  his  wisest  man 
and  trusting  him.  Such  is  the  relation  said  to  exist  be- 
tween the  Czar  and  Witte.  While  not  given  a  free  hand, 
it  is  seldom  that  his  measures  are  disapproved.  So  great 
is  the  respect  of  his  sovereign  for  this  most  resourceful 
of  his  advisers  that  it  is  said  that  Witte  does  not  in  an 
emergency  follow  the  ordinary  course  of  submitting  his 
proposition  to  his  fellow-ministers,  but  goes  directly  to 
the  Czar  for  his  approval. 

So  it  is  that  Witte  has  brought  system  and  solidarity  to 
the  cabinet  of  the  Russian  Czar,  and  in  the  same  way 
he  is  bringing  system  and  order  into  the  complex  chaos 
of  commercial  and  industrial  conditions  throughout  the 
Russian  Empire.  Nor  does  his  activity  stop  there.  It  is 
said  that  Witte  has  eyes  in  every  financial  centre  in  the 
world.  For  example,  it  is  not  generally  understood,  but 
it  is  true,  that  he  has  an  agent  in  Washington,  not  known 
as  an  attache  of  the  legation,  who  keeps  him  carefully 
and  accurately  informed  on  all  financial  conditions  in  this 
country.  The  movements  of  our  corporations,  trusts, 
politicians  are  all  laid  before  this  enterprising  statesman 
of  the  Slav  people.  He  is  in  the  councils  of  every  cabinet, 
in  the  sense  that  he  follows  all  their  decisions  and  policies 
carefully  and  instantly.  He  has  agents  in  Paris,  Berlin, 
Vienaa.  At  every  salient  point  in  the  Orient  are  the  eyes 
of  Witte.  He  is  as  carefully  informed  upon  the  financial 
conditions  in  London  as  the  English  statesmen  themselves, 
and,  indeed,  more  so,  for  he  is  more  remorselessly  indus- 
trious. 

In  short,  Witte  intends  that  Russia  shall  be  in  practical 
touch  with  all  the  rest  of  the  world,  which  it  is  the  ambition 
of  every  Russian  statesman  and  the  whole  Russian  people 
some  day — perhaps  in  the  far  distance,  but  still  some  day 
— to  dominate.  It  is  a  great  work,  in  which  all  the  en- 
ergies of  his  life  are  consumed,  for  which  he  receives  a 
financial  reward  that  is  comparatively  contemptible,  the 

447 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

hatred  of  active  interests  in  the  empire  with  whose  schemes 
he  interferes,  the  indifference  of  the  vast  mass  of  the 
people,  who  do  not  know  of  his  connection  with  the  work 
he  is  doing  for  them;  and  to  balance  all  this,  only  the  ap- 
proval, confidence,  and  affection  of  his  emperor,  the  ad- 
miration of  the  statesmen  of  other  countries,  and  the 
final  panegyric  of  history.^ 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  this  great  mind,  whom 
Tolstoi  considers  a  surface  and  artificial  juggler,  is  of  Dutch 
origin,  although  this  is  strenuously  denied  by  the  Rus- 
sians, who  begin  to  see  the  mountainous  proportions  of 
the  man,  and  who,  with  racial  jealousy,  are  now  claiming 
him  all  for  themselves.  Whether  this  is  true  or  not,  true 
it  is  that  he  has  worked  himself  up,  unaided,  against 
obstacles  that  seemed  almost  insurmountable,  from  the 
humblest  of  positions  to  the  greatest.  There  is  not  a 
life-work  in  America  which  more  perfectly  illustrates  the 
power  of  merit  in  building  a  career  than  does  the  story  of 
Sergius  Witte,  Minister  of  Finance,  and  practical  Chan- 
cellor of  the  empire.  He  came  from  the  people.  It  is  true 
that  some  claim  that  Witte's  family  was  noble;  but  if  so, 
they  were  not  of  any  practical  consequence;  and,  besides, 
it  amounts  to  nothing  to  be  a  nobleman  in  Russia,  unless 
nobihty  is  also  accompanied  by  wealth  or  abihty.  From 
the  time  of  Peter  until  now  many  of  Russia's  greatest 
public  servants  have  been  of  comparatively  lowlv  origin. 
The  biography  of  Witte,  briefly  told,  is  as  follows: 

With  a  fair  education  he  began  as  a  clerk  in  one  of  the 
departments  of  the  Odessa  railroad,  with  headquarters 
at  that  port.  Within  a  short  time  it  was  noted  that  he 
was  the  most  competent  man  in  the  whole  force.  Ac- 
cordingly, he  was  given  more  important  work.     Again, 

*  The  recent  rumors  that  Witte  is  not  in  as  high  favor  as  former- 
ly should  be  accepted  with  caution.  Even  if  temporarily 
"promoted  up-stairs,"  it  seems  probable  that  his  future  power  will 
be  as  great  or  greater  than  formerly.  Indeed,  it  is  seriously 
doubted  that  he  has  lost  much  influence  even  for  the  moment, 

448 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

he  did  his  work  better  than  anybody  else  had  done  it 
before.  And  so,  steadily  and  rapidly,  he  rose  to  the 
management  of  the  road  itself.  In  this  position  he 
proved  the  best  railway  administrator  of  a  limited  line 
who  had  yet  appeared  upon  the  field  of  Russia's  railroad 
activities. 

During  the  Turkish  war  his  genius  for  organization  is 
said  to  have  saved  the  military  situation.  With  the 
confusion  of  things  then  prevailing  in  Russia,  and  which 
still  prevails  to  a  considerable  extent  in  spite  of  Witte's 
work,  there  was  the  very  gravest  danger  of  congestion 
in  forwarding  the  troops.  It  appears  that  Witte  had 
foreseen  this  difficulty,  and  had  worked  out  in  advance 
a  system  which,  when  the  time  arrived,  he  put  into 
successful  execution.  He  did  this,  too,  without  obtruding 
himself  offensively  upon  the  notice  of  anybody.  Never- 
theless, a  work  so  important  to  the  empire  did  not,  of 
course,  go  unnoticed.  It  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
government  and  the  admiration  of  the  railway  men  of 
the  empire  and  of  Europe. 

After  the  Turkish  war  a  greater  line  than  the  Odessa 
road  claimed  his  services.  He  was  made  managing 
director  of  this  line,  and  he  made  it  the  best  road  in  the 
empire.  He  became  an  expert  on  railroad  tariffs.  He 
improved  the  road-bed.  He  improved  the  rolling-stock. 
He  introduced  rigid  system.  He  so  economized  that  he 
turned  channels  of  expenditure  into  channels  of  revenue. 
The  government  and  all  of  Russia,  and  indeed  the  railroad 
world  of  Europe,  could  not  but  be  impressed,  and  were 
impressed.  And  so  Vyshnegradsky,  then  Finance  Minis- 
ter, offered  him  the  head  of  the  railroad  department  of 
the  Ministry  of  Finance,  because  of  his  unrivalled  knowl- 
edge and  resource  in  the  matter  of  railway  tariffs.  He 
accepted,  and  for  a  few  months  conducted  this  depart- 
ment with  the  same  notable  ability  that  had  formerly 
marked  his  railway  management.  Then  the  position  of 
Minister  of  Ways  and  Communications  became  vacant, 
»•  449 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

and  the  Czar  appointed  Witte,  who  had  made  himself 
by  effort  and  abiHty,  and  nothing  else,  the  chief  railway 
man  of  the  empire,  to  this  cabinet  position.  He  held  it 
for  a  year  with  brilliancy  and  distinction.  Then  fate 
yielded  at  last  her  entire  favors  to  this  man  who  could 
not  be  denied.  The  position  of  Minister  of  Finance 
became  vacant,  and  the  Czar  looked  over  the  heads  of 
bankers,  over  theoretical  financiers,  over  all,  to  the 
practical  man  of  affairs,  who  knew  how  to  create  sources 
of  revenue  and  how  to  spend  economically  that  revenue 
after  it  had  been  collected. 

Thus  Witte  mounted  to  the  high  place  at  the  right  hand 
of  the  Czar.  Such  is  the  story  of  this  patient,  sleepless, 
ceaselessly  active,  stern,  and  silent  man.  It  is  possible 
that  he  will  continue  for  the  remainder  of  his  life  the  most 
powerful  influence  among  the  Czar's  one  hundred  and  forty 
millions  of  subjects.  It  seems  to  be  on  the  cards  of 
fate  that  more  and  more,  as  years  go  by,  the  name 
of  Witte  will  be  heard  in  every  centre  of  finance  and 
in  every  cabinet  of  every  government  on  earth.  He  is 
scarcely  more  than  fifty  years  of  age.  With  his  vast  en- 
ergies, his  great  daring,  and  his  productive  mind,  tempered 
by  a  lifetime  of  practical  experience,  it  is  probable  that 
his  future  work  will  be  even  more  striking  than  his  past 
activities.  Should  Sergius  Witte  die,  or  should  he  be  the 
victim  of  court  intrigue,  and  deprived  of  his  power,  Russia 
will  have  lost  her  ablest  statesman  and  the  Czar  his  most 
resourceful  minister.  To  make  Russia  commercially  and 
industrially  modem;  to  make  Russia  absolutely  self- 
supporting;  to  place  Russia's  treasury  in  as  opulent 
a  condition  as  the  reproductive  forces  of  her  people,  which 
are  so  great  that  she  turns  away  from  her  military  service 
every  year  almost  five  hundred  thousand  young  men  ;  and, 
finally,  to  impel  Russia  onward  towards  the  mastery  of 
the  earth — this  is  the  mission,  this  is  the  secret  ambition 
of  this  most  practical  mind  of  that  great  world  of  men 
and  human  possibilities  which  we  call  the  Russian  Empire. 

450 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

He  is  the  chief  exponent  of  the  aggressive  forces  of  order, 
system,  and  material  advance,  against  which  Tolstoi  is  the 
principal  voice  of  protest.* 

But  Tolstoi  is  fiercer  against  the  Church  than  he  is 
against  what  he  considers  the  gross  commercialism  of 
Witte.  And  the  man  upon  whom  his  hatred  is  focused  is 
Constantine  K.  Pobyedonostseff,  Procurator  of  the  Holy 
Synod.  Upon  his  head,  too,  is  poured  all  the  discontent 
of  every  Russian  who  objects  to  the  autocracy  of  the 
Greek  Church,  which,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  is  a  political 
as  well  as  a  religious  organization.  It  is  not  possible,  of 
course,  to  give  a  history  of  the  Church,  or  even  a  sketch 
of  Pobyedonostseff's  ecclesiastical  statesmanship.  It  is 
enough  to  say  that  it  has  been  the  rigid,  unyielding 
maintenance  of  one  general  plan  and  purpose — namely, 
the  inflexible  solidarity  of  the  Church  establishment  and 
its  absolute  identity  with  the  government  itself.  It  has 
been  his  ambition  to  make  and  keep  the  Church  and  the 
government  as  inseparable  as  are  the  soul  and  body  of  the 
living,  thinking  man. 

Pobyedonostseff  has  sternly  refused  to  submit  to  the 
fiercely  demanded  reform  of  permitting  a  person  once 
a  member  of  the  Russian  Church  to  leave.  "Once  an 
orthodox  Russian,  always  an  orthodox  Russian."  He 
has  resisted  all  demands  to  revise  the  Church's  creed. 
The  ideal  of  his  life  is  stability — authority;  and  to  this 
ideal  he  is  devoted  with  a  passionate  singleness  of  purpose 
which  is  the  secret  of  most  of  his  power.  It  is  the  claim 
of  the  Greek  Church  that  as  it  is  the  purest  and  most 
ancient  form  of  Christianity,  so  it  is  the  only  religious 
institution  which  never  changes.  Its  priests  boast  that 
it  is  as  much  more  permanent  and  unchangeable  than 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  as  the  latter  is  more 
permanent  and  unchangeable  than  the  various  Protestant 

'  Witte's  devotion  to  the  Czar  is  illustrated  by  the  following 
striking  sentence  in  his  financial  report  for  1900:  "To  a  Russian 
xio  obstacle  is  insui-moun table  when  his  Czar  commands." 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

denominations.  "Let  the  people  have  a  fixed  faith," 
says  Pobyedonostseflf.  "The  soul  of  the  people,  finding 
expression  through  the  ages  and  from  remote  antiquity 
in  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Church,  is  the  surest 
proof  of  its  auhenticity  and  of  its  real  representation  of 
the  soul  of  the  nation."     This  is  his  idea. 

Against  this  adamantine  character  all  the  waves  of 
reform  have  beaten  in  vain.  With  a  terrible  calmness 
he  has  denied  every  application  for  what  protesters  call 
relief.  He  has  crushed  at  their  first  appearance  all  im- 
pulses of  what  reformers  call  advance,  but  what  he  calls 
degeneration.  To  his  belief  the  fundamental  truths  are 
the  things  of  vital,  permanent,  and  eternal  moment  to  the 
souls  of  the  people.  "  Let  them  be  taught  the  simple,  the 
profound,  and  the  everlasting  truths,"  he  exclaims.  To 
believe  with  all  your  soul  in  one  God,  the  Father  of  man- 
kind ;  to  believe  without  doubting  and  with  all  the  passion 
of  unquestioning  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  His  Son,  as  the 
Saviour  of  the  world ;  to  learn  the  simple  and  fundamental 
difference  between  right  and  wrong,  between  good  and 
evil;  to  make  and  keep  the  people  simple,  obedient, 
united;  to  guard  the  Church  as  the  instrumentality 
through  which  all  these  shall  be  protected  from  all  change, 
all  innovation — these  to  Pobyedonostseff  are  the  neces- 
sary things. 

Thus  the  Church  becomes  to  him  the  most  precious  of 
all  institutions.  To  make  the  Russian  people  one  people, 
to  bind  together  Fin  and  Slav  and  Tartar  and  Circassian, 
and,  finally,  Chinamen  too,  by  the  invisible  and  unbreak- 
able bonds  of  a  simple  and  common  faith  the  roots  of 
which  run  back  unbroken  through  the  soil  of  the  centuries 
— this  is  the  vast  ambition  of  this  statesman  of  the  Church. 
And  so  it  is  that  Pobyedonostseff  rules  with  an  iron  hand. 
So  it  is  that,  being  the  apostle  of  Russian  patriotism, 
intensified  into  the  white  heat  of  religious  passion,  and 
thus  in  a  sense  the  highest  personification  of  the  Russian 
nation,  Pobyedonostseff  has  the  mind  and  heart  of  his  Czar. 

452 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

And  so  it  is  that  the  object  of  all  dissent,  the  person 
at  whose  breast  is  aimed  every  shaft  speeded  at  the 
Church  itself  and  its  doctrine  on  the  one  hand,  and  on 
the  other  the  visible  and  responsible  head  to  which  all 
officers,  priests,  and  members  of  that  enormous  organiza- 
tion attribute  all  their  misfortunes,  fancied  and  real 
— so  it  is  that  Pobyedonostseff  is  the  most  hated  man 
in  Russia.  But  even  PobyedonostsefiE's  bitterest  foes  in 
Russia  gladly  admit  his  absolute  purity  of  character. 
His  name  has  never  been  connected  with  scandal,  al- 
though his  fierce  denunciation  of  the  immorality  of  even 
the  leading  characters  of  Russian  high  life,  fearlessly  pub- 
lished, stings  like  a  whip  of  scorpions  and  intensifies  the 
already  burning  hatred  felt  for  him.  Retaliation  by  way 
of  charge  of  dishonesty  or  immorality  or  any  word  or  deed 
of  a  personally  improper  kind  has  never  been  possible. 
It  is  admitted,  too,  that  he  is  totally  without  personal 
ambition,  even  by  those  who  speak  of  him  as  bigoted  and 
fanatical  and  cruel,  and  that  he  is  actuated  in  all  his 
policies  and  plans  by  a  devoted  and  fervent,  if  narrow, 
ideal.  The  color  of  money  has  never  stained  his  hand. 
Single-mindedness,  simplicity,  purity,  intensity,  fearless- 
ness, and  a  determination  that  is  fanatical — these  are  the 
elements  of  Constantine  PobyedonostseflF's  character. 

Time  and  again  you  have  read  of  him  as  the  Tomas  de 
Torquemada  of  the  Russian  people.  More  than  once  I 
have  heard  him  described  as  the  spirit  of  the  Spanish 
Inquisition  living  and  breathing  the  atmosphere  of  the 
twentieth  century.  So  you  would  expect  that,  upon 
meeting  him,  you  would  find  a  relentless  countenance 
at  once  a  mask  for,  and  an  expression  of,  ferocity  and 
fanaticism.  And  the  conversation  with  him  was  looked 
forward  to  with  keener  interest  than  that  with  Tolstoi  or 
even  with  Witte  himself. 

What  of  this  man,  then,  and  his  surroundings?  Un- 
less you  visit  him  in  the  office  of  the  Holy  Synod,  you 
will  find  him  in  a  very  unpretentious  building,  which 

453 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

stands  flush  with  the  sidewalk  on  one  of  the  streets  of  St. 
Petersburg.  Upon  entering  you  are  in  a  hallway,  wide 
and  of  medium  height,  with  two  soldiers  standing  at  either 
side.  Turning  to  the  right,  you  mount  three  low,  broad 
steps  into  another  hallway  or  room,  with  lower  ceiling 
than  the  first,  where  again  two  soldiers  are  motionless 
sentinels.  One  of  these  announces  you,  and  a  broad 
door  is  entered  into  a  large,  low  room,  full  of  shadow. 

There  are  books  by  the  score,  by  the  hundred.  The 
man  who  works  here  is  a  student — that  is  plain.  You 
know  that  he  has  translated  more  than  one  English 
classic  into  Russian.  You  know,  too,  that  our  own 
Emerson  is  Pobyedonostseff's  favorite  author.  So  the 
regiments  of  books  in  several  languages  do  not  surprise 
you.  At  the  extreme  end,  in  still  deeper  shadow  as  it 
appears  from  where  you  enter  the  door,  there  is  an  ample, 
broad,  heavy  desk,  made  out  of  some  dark  wood.  At 
this  desk  sits  an  old  man  whose  shoulders  droop  with 
age — that  thing  you  observe,  although  he  is  bending 
forward,  lost  to  all  other  things  in  the  writing  in  which 
he  is  engaged.  He  turns  quickly,  however,  and  ad- 
vances towards  you,  and  in  a  low,  pleasant  voice,  full  of 
all  courtesy  and  kindliness,  speaks,  and  makes  you  in- 
stantly at  home.  You  see  the  face  now  and  the  head. 
The  hair,  now  becoming  scanty  and  quite  gray,  is  cut 
as  close  as  possible.  It  is  a  large  and  finely  shaped  head, 
with  the  regions  of  thought  and  reflection  highly  devel- 
oped. The  face  is  mild,  even  benevolent.  The  gray  eyes 
are  almost  affectionate.  The  features  are  aglow  with 
intelligence.  The  impression  immediately  produced  is 
that  of  acute  and  profound  mentality.  In  a  photograph 
his  face  looks  like  that  of  the  typical  New  England 
professor  of  twenty  years  ago.  But,  with  the  living  man 
before  you,  it  is  the  last  face  that  you  would  have  picked 
out  as  that  of  the  ruthless  autocrat  of  religious  stability. 
His  talk  is  mellow,  alive,  informing.  His  memory  is 
sensitive  and  instantaneous. 

454 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

Everybody  knows  of  the  visit  of  the  late  Charles  A, 
Dana,  of  the  New  York  Sun,  to  this  kindred  mind.  Mr. 
Dana  sought  the  interview,  and,  it  is  said,  went  to  him 
with  disapproval.  He  came  away  the  captivated  admirer 
of  this  prince  of  Russian  religious  permanency.  The 
incident  of  Mr.  Dana's  visit  being  called  to  his  attention, 
Pobyedonostseff  remembered  it  instantly,  and  all  of  its 
details,  and  spoke  of  Mr.  Dana  with  admiration  and 
enthusiasm.  "A  wonderful  man,"  he  said,  "so  broad, 
so  catholic,  so  well  informed.  His  was  a  mind  and  spirit 
of  true  greatness." 

Pobyedonostseff  has  the  courage  of  his  convictions  in 
the  most  ultimate  degree.  He  does  not  believe  in  demo- 
cratic institutions.  He  does  not  apologize  for  Russian 
autocracy;  he  does  not  even  defend  it;  he  asserts  that  it 
is  the  only  correct  principle  of  government — asserts, 
asserts,  asserts!     The  whole  man  is  assertion! 

"People  who  live  in  parlimentary  governments  flatter 
themselves  that  they  govern  themselves ;  but  they  do  not. 
A  small  oligarchy  governs  them.  I  have  studied  that 
system  well,  Votes  are  influenced  by  the  appeals  of 
demagogues.  Other  votes  are  bought  outright  by  actual 
cash.  Still  other  votes  are  influenced  by  the  unthinking 
force  of  party  association;  and  all  of  this  programme  is 
arranged  and  operated  by  the  few  wire  -  pullers  behind 
the  scenes.  These  wire  -  pullers  are  the  real  rulers  in 
democratic  governments.  And  are  they  pure  ?  Are  they 
learned?  Are  they  wise?  Do  they  have  the  real  in- 
terests of  the  people  at  heart,  or  is  their  own  petty  per- 
sonal interest  the  thing  that  controls  them  most?  And 
if  this  last  is  so,  are  they  equal  to  the  enlightened  govern- 
ing class  at  whose  head  sits  a  hereditary  Czar,  above 
corruption,  above  jealousies,  above  the  mutations  of 
party,  and  influenced  under  God  only  by  the  consideration 
of  the  welfare  of  the  people  for  whom  he  is  responsible  to 
God?  Sometimes  elections  turn  upon  the  mere  chance 
as  to  whether  one  party  or  the  other  gets  the  voters 

455 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

belonging  to  their  organization  out  to  the  polls.  In  those 
instances  chance  rules.  It  is  like  throwing  dice.  Is 
there  anything  rational  in  such  a  government  as  this?" 
This,  of  course,  is  not  a  verbatim  report  of  a  consecutive 
conversation;  but  it  accurately  represents  his  views. 

But  perhaps  there  can  be  no  better  method  of  setting 
out  the  mental  quality  of  this  autocrat  of  Russian 
orthodoxy  than  to  reproduce  his  own  words  from  the 
book  mentioned  in  another  chapter,  entitled  The  Re- 
flections of  a  Russian  Statesman.  Let  us  take  as  our 
first  example  some  paragraphs  from  his  philippic  against 
"The  Press."  We  shall  thus  see  what  a  universe  of 
opposite  and  antagonistic  thought  rolls  between  the  be- 
liefs of  this  dominant  Russian  mind  and  our  American 
conceptions  of  the  character,  work,  and  duties  of  that 
most  active  and  omnipresent  agent  of  our  modern  civiliza- 
tion, the  newspaper.     Says  Pobyedonostseff  : 

"The  newspaper  has  usurped  the  position  of  judicial  observer 
of  the  events  of  the  day ;  it  judges  not  only  the  actions  and  words  of 
men,  but  affects  a  knowledge  of  their  unexpressed  opinions,  their 
intentions,  and  their  enterprises;  it  praises  and  condemns  at  dis- 
cretion; it  incites  some,  threatens  others;  drags  to  the  pillory  one, 
and  others  exalts  as  idols  to  be  adored  and  examples  worthy  of  the 
emulation  of  all.  In  the  name  of  public  opinion  it  bestows  re- 
wards on  some,  and  punishes  others  with  the  severity  of  excom- 
munication. The  question  naturally  occurs:  Who  are  these  rep- 
resentatives of  this  terrible  power,  public  opinion?  Whence  is 
derived  their  right  and  authority  to  rule  in  the  name  of  the  com- 
munity, to  demolish  existing  institutions,  and  to  proclaim  new 
ideals  of  ethics  and  legislation?" 

Then  he  answers  his  own  questions: 

"Any  vagabond  babbler  or  unacknowledegd  genius,  any  enter- 
prising tradesman,  with  his  own  money,  or  with  the  money  of 
others,  may  found  a  newspaper,  even  a  great  newspaper.  He 
may  attract  a  host  of  writers  and  feuilletonists,  ready  to  deliver 
judgment  on  any  subject  at  a  moment's  notice;  he  may  hire  illiter- 
ate reporters  to  keep  him  supplied  with  rumors  and  scandals.  His 
staff  is  then  complete.     From  that  day  he  sits  in  judgment  on  all 

4S6 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

the  world,  on  ministers  and  administrators,  on  literattire  and  art, 
on  finance  and  industry.  It  is  true  that  the  new  journal  becomes  a 
power  only  when  it  is  sold  on  the  market — that  is,  when  it  circu- 
lates among  the  public.  For  this  talent  is  needed,  and  the  matter 
published  must  be  attractive  and  congenial  for  the  readers.  Here, 
we  might  think,  was  some  guarantee  of  the  moral  value  of  the  un- 
dertaking— men  of  talent  will  not  serve  a  feeble  or  contemptible 
editor  or  publisher;  the  public  will  not  support  a  newspaper  which 
is  not  a  faithful  echo  of  public  opinion. 

"This  guarantee  is  fictitious.  Experience  proves  that  money 
will  attract  talent  under  any  conditions,  and  that  talent  is  ready 
to  write  as  its  paymaster  requires.  Experience  proves  that  the 
most  contemptible  persons  —  retired  money-lenders,  Jewish  fac- 
tors, news- venders,  and  bankrupt  gamblers  —  may  found  news- 
papers, secure  the  services  of  talented  writers,  and  place  their 
editions  on  the  market  as  organs  of  public  opinion.  The  healthy 
taste  of  the  public  is  not  to  be  relied  upon.  The  great  mass  of 
readers,  idlers  for  the  most  part,  is  ruled  less  by  a  few  healthy  in- 
stincts than  by  a  base  and  despicable  hankering  for  idle  amuse- 
ment ;  and  the  support  of  the  people  may  be  secured  by  any  editor 
who  provides  for  the  satisfaction  of  these  hankerings,  for  the  love 
of  scandal,  and  for  intellectual  pruriency  of  the  basest  kind.  Of 
this  we  meet  with  evidence  daily ;  even  in  our  capital  no  search  is 
necessary  to  find  it ;  it  is  enough  to  note  the  supply  and  demand  of 
the  news-venders'  shops  and  at  the  railway-stations. 

"Svich  a  paper  may  flourish,  attain  consideration  as  an  organ 
of  public  opinion,  and  be  immensely  remunerative  to  its  owners, 
while  no  paper  conducted  upon  firm  moral  principles,  or  founded 
to  meet  the  healthier  instincts  of  the  people  could  compete  with  it 
for  a  moment." 

Finally  he  delivers  this  last  blow  at  what  he  con- 
siders the  irresponsibility  of  the  journalist: 

"For  the  journalist,  with  a  power  comprehending  all  things,  re- 
quires no  sanction.  He  derives  his  authority  from  no  election,  he 
receives  support  from  no  one.  His  newspaper  becomes  an  author- 
ity in  the  State,  and  for  this  authority  no  endorsement  is  required. 
The  man  in  the  street  may  establish  such  an  organ,  and  exercise 
the  concomitant  authority  with  an  irresponsibility  enjoyed  by  no 
other  power  in  the  world.  That  this  is  in  no  way  exaggeration 
there  are  innumerable  proofs.  How  often  have  superficial  and  un- 
scrupulous journalists  paved  the  way  for  evolution,  fomented  irri- 
tation into  enmity,  and  brought  about  desolating  wars  ?     For  con- 

457 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

duct  such  as  this  a  monarch  would  lose  his  throne,  a  minister 
would  be  disgraced,  impeached,  and  punished;  but  the  journalist 
stands  dry  above  the  waters  he  has  disturbed,  from  the  ruin  he 
has  caused  he  rises  triumphant,  and  briskly  continues  his  destruc- 
tive work. 

"This  is  by  no  means  the  worst.  When  a  judge  has  power  to 
dishonor  us,  to  deprive  us  of  our  property  and  of  our  freedom,  he 
receives  his  power  from  the  hands  of  the  state  only  after  such  pro- 
longed labor  and  experience  as  qualify  him  for  his  calling.  His 
power  is  restricted  by  rigorous  laws,  his  judgments  are  subject  to 
revision  by  higher  powers,  and  his  sentence  may  be  altered  or 
commuted.  The  journalist  has  the  fullest  power  to  defame  and 
dishonor  me,  to  injure  my  material  interests,  even  to  restrict  my 
liberty  by  attacks  which  force  me  to  leave  my  place  of  abode. 
These  judicial  powers  he  has  usurped;  no  higher  authority  has 
conferred  them  upon  him;  he  has  never  proven  by  examination 
his  fitness  to  exercise  them;  he  has  in  no  way  shown  his  trust- 
worthiness or  his  impartiality:  his  court  is  ruled  by  no  formal  pro- 
cedure; and  from  his  judgment  there  lies  no  appeal. 

"  Its  defenders  assure  us  that  the  Press  itself  heals  the  wounds  it 
has  inflicted;  but  any  thinking  mind  can  see  that  these  are  mere 
idle  words.  The  attacks  of  the  Press  on  individuals  may  cause 
irreparable  injiiry.  Retractions  and  explanations  can  in  no  way 
give  them  full  satisfaction.  Not  half  of  those  who  read  the  de- 
nunciatory article  will  read  the  apology  or  the  explanation,  and 
in  the  minds  of  the  mass  of  frivolous  readers  insulting  or  calum- 
nious suggestions  leave  behind  an  ineffaceable  stain.  Criminal 
prosecution  for  defamation  is  but  the  feeblest  defence,  and  civil 
action  seldom  succeeds  in  exposing  the  offender,  while  it  subjects 
the  offended  to  fresh  attack.  The  journalist,  moreover,  has  a 
thousand  means  of  wounding  and  terrifying  individuals  without 
furnishing  them  with  sufficient  grounds  for  legal  prosecution. 

"It  is  hard  to  imagine  a  despotism  more  irrespon.sible  and  vio- 
lent than  the  despotism  of  printed  words.  Is  it  not  strange  and 
irrational,  then,  that  those  who  struggle  most  for  the  preservation 
of  this  despotism  are  the  impassioned  champions  of  freedom,  the, 
ferocious  enemies  of  legal  restrictions  and  of  all  interference  by  the 
established  authority.  We  cannot  help  remembering  those  wise 
men  who  went  mad  because  they  knew  of  their  wisdom." 

This  denunciation  of  the  modem  newspaper  will  re- 
veal from  what  a  different  and  hostile  view  -  point  the 
Russian,  who  is  a  fervent  believer  in  orthodoxy  and 
autocracy,  looks  upon  things  which  to  the  American,  or 

458 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

indeed  the  non-Russian  European,  mind  are  essential  parts 
of  modem  progress.  And  yet  this  is  only  a  phase  of 
Pobyedonostseff 's  boundless  antagonism  to  all  forms  and 
manifestations  of  what  to  us  is  hberty,  but  what  to  him 
is  license.  A  single  quotation  from  his  essay,  "The  Great 
Falsehood  of  Our  Time,"  directed  against  the  English 
Electoral  system,  will  throw  a  flood  of  light  upon  his  views 
as  well  as  reveal  his  method  of  thought  and  expression: 

"Elections  are  a  matter  of  art,  having,  as  the  military  art,  their 
strategy  and  tactics.  The  candidate  is  not  brought  into  direct  re- 
lations with  his  constituents.  As  intermediary  stands  the  com- 
mittee, a  self-constituted  institution,  the  chief  weapon  of  which 
is  impudence.  The  candidate,  if  he  is  unknown,  begins  by  assem- 
bling a  number  of  friends  and  patrons.  Then  all  together  organ- 
ize a  hunt  among  the  rich  and  weak-minded  aristocrats  of  the 
neighborhood,  whom  they  convince  that  it  is  their  duty,  their  pre- 
rogative, and  their  privilege  to  stand  at  the  head  as  leaders  of 
public  opinion.  There  is  little  difficulty  in  finding  stupid  or  idle 
people  who  are  taken  in  by  this  trickery;  and  then,  above  their  sig- 
natures, appear  manifestoes  in  the  newspapers  and  on  the  walls 
and  pillars,  which  seduce  the  mass,  eager  always  in  the  pursuit 
of  names,  titles,  and  wealth.  Thus  are  formed  the  committees 
which  direct  and  control  the  elections.  They  resemble  in  much 
public  companies.  The  composition  of  the  committee  is  carefully 
elaborated;  it  contains  some  effective  forces — energetic  men  who 
pursue,  at  all  costs,  material  ends;  while  simple  and  frivolous  idlers 
constitute  the  ballast.  The  committees  organize  meetings,  where 
speeches  arc  delivered,  where  he  who  possesses  a  powerful  voice, 
and  can  quickly  and  skilfully  string  phrases  together,  produces  al- 
waj'^s  an  impression  on  the  mass,  and  acquires  notoriety — thus 
comes  out  the  candidate  for  future  election,  who,  with  favoring 
conditions,  may  even  supersede  him  whom  he  came  to  help. 
Phrases,  and  nothing  but  phra,ses,  dominate  these  meetings.  The 
crowd  hears  only  him  who  cries  the  loudest,  and  who,  with  impu- 
dence and  with  flattery,  conforms  most  artfully  to  the  impulses 
and  tendencies  of  the  mob. 

"On  the  day  of  polling  few  give  their  votes  intelligently;  these 
are  the  individual  influential  electors  whom  it  has  been  worth 
while  to  convince  in  private.  The  mass  of  the  electors,  after  the 
practice  of  the  herd,  votes  for  one  of  the  candidates  nominated  by 
the  committees.  Not  one  exactly  knows  the  man,  or  considers  his 
character,  his  capacity,  his  convictions;  all  vote  merely  because 

459 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

they  have  heard  his  name  so  often.  It  ■would  be  vain  to  struggle 
against  this  herd.  If  a  level-headed  elector  wished  to  act  intelli- 
gently in  such  a  grave  aflair,  and  not  to  give  way  to  the  violence 
of  the  committee,  he  would  have  to  abstain  altogether,  or  to  give 
his  vote  for  his  candidate  according  to  his  conviction.  However 
he  might  act,  he  could  not  prevent  the  election  of  the  candidate 
favored  by  the  mass  of  frivolous,  indifferent,  and  prejudiced  elec- 
tors. 

"In  theory,  the  elected  candidate  must  be  the  favorite  of  the 
majority;  in  fact,  he  is  the  favorite  of  a  minority,  sometimes  very 
small,  but  representing  an  organized  force,  while  the  majority, 
like  sand,  has  no  coherence,  and  is,  therefore,  incapable  of  resisting 
the  cliqvie  and  the  faction.  In  theory,  the  election  favors  the  in- 
telligent and  capable;  in  reality,  it  favors  the  pushing  and  im- 
pudent." 

It  will  be  seen  from  these  quotations  that  Pobyedon- 
ostseff  is  as  intellectually  intense,  as  mentally  passionate, 
as  he  is  in  manners  urbane  and  charming;  but  he  is  not 
always  soothing  and  velvet-voiced  even  in  personal  talk 
and  contact.  At  the  close  of  the  conversation  the  policy 
of  the  Church  was  mentioned.  Instantly  it  appeared  that 
every  nerve  of  his  sensitive  organism  had  been  touched 
into  abnormal  alertness.  "Yes,  what  of  the  policy  of  the 
Church?"  It  was  suggested  that,  when  considered  as  a 
great  cohesive  force,  whose  purpose  it  was  to  bind  together 
into  a  solid  and  substantial  society  scores  of  millions  of 
people  widely  scattered,  it  was  a  coherent  and  reasonable 
policy,  as  viewed  even  by  an  ultra-republican.  He  an- 
swered, his  form  gradually  straightening  as  he  spoke,  until 
he  stood  as  erect  as  a  man  of  twenty.  The  years  rolled 
away  from  his  virile  shoulders,  the  light  of  youth  blazed 
from  his  eyes,  his  voice  grew  more  vibrant  as  he  proceeded, 
until,  at  the  last  word,  it  rang  as  a  trumpet.  "  Yes,  yes," 
he  said,  "you  are  quite  right  about  that.  But,  sir,  you 
make  one  terrible  mistake.  You  refer  to  Russia  as  a  state. 
No!  no!     Russia  is  no  state ;  Russia  is  a  world ! " 

It  was  the  most  illuminating,  as  it  was  the  most  quotable, 
single  sentence  heard  within  the  dominions  of  the  Czar. 
There  was  the  master  word  that  unlocked  all  the  com- 

460 


THE    RUSSIAN    ADVANCE 

plexities  ®f  Witte's  statesmanship;  there  was  laid  bare 
the  unspoken — almost  unthought — aspiration  of  the  Rus- 
sian people,  so  profound  as  to  be  an  instinct;  there  spoke 
the  determination  of  the  virile  Slav  race,  which,  despite 
frightful  mortality,  due  to  unhygienic  living  and  con- 
ditions— despite  the  fact  that  no  Russian  child  but  the 
fittest  survives — is  yet  adding  to  its  numbers  by  over 
two  million  souls  every  year.  This  was  the  voice  of  the 
soul  of  Russia — Russia  that  ever  waits,  Russia  that  is 
ever  patient,  Russia  that  ever  advances,  Russia  that  never 
hurries,  Russia  that  looks  upon  other  peoples  as  dis- 
organized communities  and  dying  races  and  considers  her- 
self the  heir  of  all  the  ages,  Russia  that  believes  and  feels 
that  she  is  not  a  state,  but  a  world.  "  No!  no!  Russia  is 
no  state;  Russia  is  a  world!"'  So  exclaims  the  apostle 
of  Russian  orthodoxy,  so  devoutly  believe  the  Russian 
people,  so  plan  the  far-seeing  Russian  statesmen.  All 
men  estimating  the  thought  and  tendencies  of  nations, 
when  putting  Russia  to  the  test  of  analysis,  should,  if  they 
would  truly  understand  as  they  analyze,  repeat  these 
words  of  Pobyedonostseff ,  Procurator  of  the  Holy  Synod 
of  Russia's  national  Church:  ''Russia  is  no  state;  Russia 
is  a  world.''  For  these  eight  words  express  the  feeling 
and  the  faith  of  the  most  numerous  of  modem  peoples 
and  the  most  extensive  of  modern  empires. 


APPENDIX 

TREATY    OF    SHIMONOSEKI,    BY    WHICH    SOUTHERN 
MANCHURIA  WAS   CEDED   TO  JAPAN 

(Signed  April  17,  1895;  ratified  at  Chefoo,  May  8,  1895.) 

Article  I.  China  recognizes  definitely  the  full  and  complete  in- 
dependence and  autonomy  of  Korea,  and  in  consequence  the  pay- 
ment of  tribute  and  the  performance  of  ceremonies  and  formal- 
ities by  Korea  to  China  in  derogation  of  such  independence  and 
autonomy  shall  wholly  cease  for  the  future. 

Article  II.  China  cedes  to  Japan  in  perpetuity  and  full  sov- 
ereignty the  following  territories,  together  with  all  fortifications, 
arsenals,  and  public  property  thereon: 

(a) .  The  southern  portion  of  the  province  of  Feng-t'ien  within 
the  following  boundaries: 

The  line  of  demarcation  begins  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Yalu 
and  ascends  that  stream  to  the  mouth  of  the  river  Anping;  from 
thence  the  line  runs  to  Feng  Huang;  from  thence  to  Haicheng; 
from  thence  to  Ying-Kow,  forming  a  line  which  describes  the 
southern  portion  of  the  territory.  The  places  above  named  are 
included  in  the  ceded  territory.  When  the  line  reaches  the  river 
Liao  at  Ying-Kow  it  follows  the  course  of  that  stream  to  its  mouth, 
where  it  terminates.  The  mid-channel  of  the  river  Liao  shall  be 
taken  as  the  line  of  demarcation. 

This  cession  also  includes  all  islands  appertaining  or  belonging 
to  the  province  of  Feng-t'ien,  situated  in  the  eastern  portion  of 
the  bay  of  Liaotung  and  in  the  northern  part  of  the  Yellow  Sea. 

(b).  The  island  of  Formosa,  together  with  all  islands  apper- 
taining to  the  said  island  of  Formosa. 

(c).  The  Pescadores  Group — that  is  to  say,  all  islands  lying  be- 
tween the  one  hundred  and  nineteenth  and  twelfth  degrees  of 
longitude  east  of  Greenu-ich  and  the  twenty-third  and  two  hun- 
dred and  fortieth  degrees  of  north  latitude. 

Article  III.  The  alignments  of  the  frontiers  described  in  the 
preceding  article,  and  shown  on  the  map,  shall  be  subject  to  veri- 

463 


APPENDIX 

fication  and  demarcation  on  the  spot  by  a  Joint  Commission  of 
delimitation,  consisting  of  two  or  more  Japanese,  and  two  or  more 
Chinese  delegates,  to  be  appointed  immediately  after  the  exchange 
of  the  ratifications  of  this  act.  In  case  the  boundaries  laid  down  in 
this  act  are  found  to  be  defective  at  any  point,  either  on  account  of 
topography  or  in  consideration  of  good  administration,  it  shall  also 
be  the  duty  of  the  Delimitation  Commission  to  rectify  the  same. 

The  Delimitation  Commission  will  enter  upon  its  duties  as  soon 
as  possible,  and  will  bring  its  labors  to  a  conclusion  within  the 
period  of  one  year  after  appointment. 

The  alignments  laid  down  in  this  act  shall,  however,  be  main- 
tained until  the  rectifications  of  the  Delimitation  Commission,  if 
any  are  made,  shall  have  received  the  approval  of  the  govern- 
ments of  Japan  and  China. 

Article  IV.  China  agrees  to  pay  to  Japan  as  a  war  indemnity 
the  sum  of  two  hundred  million  Kuping  taels.  The  said  sum  to 
be  paid  in  eight  instalments.  The  first  instalment  of  fifty  million 
taels  to  be  paid  within  six  months,  and  the  second  instalment  of 
fifty  million  taels  to  be  paid  within  twelve  months  after  the  ex- 
change of  the  ratifications  of  this  act.  The  remaining  sum  to  be 
paid  in  six  equal  annual  instalments  as  follows:  The  first  of  such 
equal  instalments  to  be  paid  within  two  years;  the  second  within 
three  years;  the  third  within  four  years;  the  fourth  within  five 
years;  the  fifth  within  six  years;  and  the  sixth  within  seven  years, 
after  the  exchange  of  the  ratifications  of  this  act.  Interest  at  the 
rate  of  five  per  centum  per  annum  shall  begin  to  run  on  all  iinpaid 
portions  of  the  said  indemnity  from  the  date  the  first  instalment 
falls  due. 

China,  however,  shall  have  the  right  to  pay  by  anticipation  at 
any  time  any  or  all  of  said  instalments.  In  case  the  whole  amoimt 
of  said  indemnity  is  paid  within  three  years  after  the  exchange  of 
ratifications  of  the  present  act,  all  interest  shall  be  waived  and 
the  interest  for  two  years  and  a  half  or  for  any  less  period,  if  then 
already  paid,  shall  be  included  as  a  part  of  the  principal  amount 
of  the  indemnity. 

Ai'ticle  V.  The  inhabitants  of  the  territories  ceded  to  Japan, 
who  wish  to  take  up  their  residence  outside  the  ceded  districts, 
shall  be  at  liberty  to  sell  their  real  property  and  retire.  For  this 
purpose  a  period  of  two  years  from  the  date  of  the  exchange  of  the 
ratifications  of  the  present  act  shall  be  granted.  At  the  expira- 
tion of  that  period,  those  of  the  inhabitants  who  shall  not  have  left 
such  territories  shall,  at  the  option  of  Japan,  be  deemed  to  be  Jap- 
anese subjects. 

Each  of  the  two  governments  shall,  immediately  upon  the  ex- 
change of  the  ratifications  of  the  present  act,  send  one  or  more  com- 

464 


APPENDIX 

missioners  to  Formosa  to  effect  a  final  transfer  of  that  province, 
and  within  the  space  of  two  months  after  the  exchange  of  the  rat- 
ifications of  this  act  such  transfer  shall  be  completed. 

Article  VI.  All  treaties  between  Japan  and  China  having  come 
to  an  end  in  consequence  of  war,  China  engages  immediately  upon 
the  exchange  of  the  ratifications  of  this  act,  to  appoint  plenipo- 
tentiaries to  conclude,  with  the  Japanese  plenipotentiaries,  a 
treaty  of  commerce  and  navigation  and  a  convention  to  regu- 
late frontier  intercourse  and  trade.  The  treaties,  conventions, 
and  regulations  now  subsisting  between  China  and  European 
powers  shall  serve  as  a  basis  for  the  said  treaty  and  convention 
between  Japan  and  China.  From  the  date  of  the  exchange  of  the 
ratifications  of  this  act  until  the  said  treaty  and  convention  are 
brought  into  actual  operation,  the  Japanese  government,  its  of- 
ficials, commerce,  navigations,  frontier  intercourse  and  trade,  in- 
dustries, ships,  and  subjects,  shall,  in  every  respect,  be  accorded 
by  China  most  favored-nation  treatment. 

China  makes,  in  addition,  the  following  concessions,  to  take 
effect  six  months  after  the  date  of  the  present  act: 

First.  The  following  cities,  towns,  and  ports,  in  addition  to  those 
already  opened,  shall  be  opened  to  the  trade,  residence,  industries, 
and  manufactures  of  Japanese  subjects,  under  the  same  conditions 
and  with  the  same  privileges  and  facilities  as  exist  at  the  present 
open  cities,  towns,  and  ports  of  China: 

1.  Shashih,  in  the  province  of  Hupeh. 

2.  Chung-King,  in  the  province  of  Szechuan. 

3.  Suchow,  in  the  Province  of  Kiang-Su. 

4.  Hangchow,  in  the  province  of  Chekiang. 

The  Japanese  government  shall  have  the  right  to  station  con- 
suls at  any  or  all  of  the  above-named  places. 

Second.  Steam  navigation  for  vessels  under  the  Japanese  flag 
for  the  conveyance  of  passengers  and  cargo  shall  be  extended  to 
the  following  places: 

1.  On  the  upper  Yang-tse  River,  from  Ichang  to  Chung- King. 

2.  On  the  Woosung  River  and  the  Canal,  from  Shanghai  to 
Suchow  and  Hangchow. 

The  rules  and  regulations  which  now  govern  the  navigation  of 
the  inland  waters  of  China  by  foreign  vessels  shall,  so  far  as  ap- 
plicable, be  enforced  in  respect  to  the  above-named  routes,  until 
new  rules  and  regulations  are  conjointly  agreed  to. 

Third.  Japanese  subjects  purchasing  goods  or  produce  in  the 
interior  of  China  or  transporting  imported  merchandise  into  the 
interior  of  China,  shall  have  the  right  temporarily  to  rent  or  hire 
warehouses  for  the  storage  of  articles  so  purchased  or  transported 
without  the  payment  of  any  taxes  or  exactions  whatever. 
so  465 


APPENDIX 

Fourth.  Japanese  subjects  shall  be  free  to  engage  in  all  kinds  of 
manufacturing  industries  in  all  the  open  cities,  towns,  and  ports  of 
China,  and  shall  be  at  liberty  to  import  into  China  all  kinds  of 
machinery,  paying  only   the   stipulated   import   duties  thereon. 

All  articles  manufactured  by  Japanese  subjects  in  China  shall, 
in  respect  of  inland  transit  and  internal  taxes,  duties,  charges,  and 
exactions  of  all  kinds,  and  also  in  respect  of  warehousing  and 
storage  facilities  in  the  interior  of  China,  stand  upon  the  same  foot- 
ing and  enjoy  the  same  privileges  and  exemptions  as  merchandise 
imported  by  Japanese  subjects  into  China. 

In  the  event  additional  rules  and  regulations  are  necessary 
in  connection  with  these  concessions,  they  shall  be  embodied 
in  the  Treaty  of  Commerce  and  Navigation  provided  for  by  this 
article. 

Article  VII.  Subject  to  the  provisions  of  the  next  succeeding 
article,  the  evacuation  of  China  by  the  armies  of  Japan  shall  be 
completely  effected  within  three  months  after  the  exchange  of  the 
ratifications  of  the  present  act. 

Article  VIII.  As  a  guarantee  of  the  faithful  performance  of 
the  stipulations  of  this  act,  China  consents  to  the  temporary 
occupation  by  the  military  forces  of  Japan,  of  Wei-Hai-Wei,  in  the 
province  of  Shang-Tung. 

Upon  the  payment  of  the  first  two  instalments  of  the  war 
indemnity  herein  stipulated  for  and  the  exchange  of  the  rati- 
fications of  the  Treaty  of  Commerce  and  Navigation,  said  place 
shall  be  evacuated  by  the  Japanese  forces,  provided  the  Chinese 
government  consents  to  pledge,  under  suitable  and  sufficient 
arrangements,  the  Customs  Revenue  of  China  as  security  for  the 
payment  of  the  final  instalment  of  said  indemnity. 

It  is,  however,  expressly  understood  that  no  such  evacuation 
shall  take  place  until  after  the  exchange  of  the  ratifications  of 
the  Treaty  of  Commerce  and  Navigation. 

Article  IX.  Immediately  upon  the  exchange  of  the  ratifica- 
tions of  this  act,  all  prisoners  of  war  then  held  shall  be  restored, 
and  China  undertakes  not  to  ill-treat  or  punish  prisoners  of  war  so 
restored  to  her  by  Japan.  China  also  engages  to  at  once  release 
all  Japanese  subjects  accused  of  being  military  spies  or  charged 
with  any  other  military  offences.  China  further  engages  not  to 
punish  in  any  manner,  nor  to  allow  to  be  punished,  those  Chinese 
subjects  who  have  in  any  manner  been  compromised  in  their 
relations  with  the  Japanese  army  during  the  war. 

Article  X.  All  offensive  military  operations  shall  cease  upon 
the  exchange  of  the  ratifications  of  this  act. 

Article  XI.  The  present  act  shall  be  ratified  by  their  Majesties 
the  Emperor  of  Japan  and  the  Emperor  of  China,  and  the  ratifi- 

466 


APPENDIX 

cations  shall  be  exchanged  at  Chefoo,  on  the  eighth  day  of  the  fifth 
month  of  the  twenty-eighth  year  of  Meiji,  corresponding  to  the 
fotirteenth  day  of  the  fourth  month  of  the  twenty-first  year  of 
Kuang  Hsu. 

In  witness  whereof,  the  respective  plenipotentiaries  have  signed 
the  same  and  have  affixed  thereto  the  seal  of  their  arms. 

Done  at  Shimonoseki,  in  duplicate,  this  seventeenth  day  of  the 
fourth  month  of  the  twenty-eighth  year  of  Meiji,  corresponding  to 
the  twenty-third  day  of  the  third  month  of  the  twenty-first  year 
of  Kuang  Hsu. 

Count  Ito  Hirobumi. 

Viscount  Mutsu  Munemitsu. 

Li  Hung  Chang. 

Li  Ching-Fong. 


SEPARATE  ARTICLES 

Article  I.  The  Japanese  Military  Forces  which  are,  under  Ar- 
ticle VI I L  of  the  Treaty  of  Peace  signed  this  day,  to  temporarily 
occupy  Wei-Hai-Wei,  shall  not  exceed  one  brigade,  and  from  the 
date  of  the  exchange  of  the  ratifications  of  the  said  Treaty  of 
Peace,  China  shall  pay  annually  one-fourth  of  the  amount  of  the 
expenses  of  such  temporary  occupation — that  is  to  say,  at  the  rate 
of  500,000  Kuping  taels  per  annum. 

Article  II.  The  territory  temporarily  occupied  at  Wei-Hai-Wei 
shall  comprise  the  island  of  Liu  Kunk  and  a  belt  of  land  five  Jap- 
anese ri  wide  along  the  entire  coast-line  of  the  bay  of  Wei-Hai-Wei. 

No  Chinese  troops  shall  be  permitted  to  approach  or  occupy 
any  places  within  a  zone  five  Japanese  ri  wide  beyond  the  boun- 
daries of  the  occupied  territory. 

Article  III.  The  Civil  Administration  of  the  occupied  territory 
shall  remain  in  the  hands  of  the  Chinese  authorities.  But  such 
authorities  shall  at  all  times  be  obliged  to  conform  to  the  orders 
which  the  Japanese  army  of  occupation  may  deem  it  necessary 
to  give  in  the  interest  of  the  health,  maintenance,  safety,  dis- 
tribution, or  discipline  of  the  troops. 

All  military  offences  committed  within  the  occupied  territory 
shall  be  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Japanese  military 
authorities. 

The  foregoing  Separate  Articles  shall  have  the  same  force, 
value,  and  effect  as  if  they  had  been  word  for  word  inserted  in  the 
Treaty  of  Peace  signed  this  day. 

In  witness  whereof,  the  respective  plenipotentiaries  have  signed 
the  same  and  have  affixed  thereto  the  seal  of  their  arms. 

467 


APPENDIX 

Done  at  Shimonoseki,  in  duplicate,  this  seventeenth  day  of  the 
fourth  month  of  the  twenty-eighth  year  of  Meiji,  corresponding  to 
the  twenty-first  year  of  Kuang  Hsu. 

Count  Ito  Hirobumi. 

Viscount  Mutsu  Munemitsu. 

Li  Hung  Chang. 


MIKADO'S     RESCRIPT     WITHDRAWING     FROM     MAN- 
CHURIA.    (May  lo,  1895.) 

We  recently  complied  with  the  request  of  China,  and  in  con- 
sequence appointed  plenipotentiaries  and  caused  them  to  confer 
with  the  plenipotentiaries  appointed  by  China  and  to  conclude  a 
Treaty  of  Peace  between  the  two  Empires. 

Since  then  the  governments  of  their  Majesties  the  Emperors  of 
Russia  and  Germany  and  of  the  Republic  of  France  have  united 
in  a  recommendation  to  our  government  not  to  permanently 
possess  the  peninsula  of  Feng-t'ien,  our  newly  acquired  territory, 
on  the  ground  that  such  permanent  possession  would  be  detrimen- 
tal to  the  lasting  peace  of  the  Orient. 

Devoted  as  we  unalterably  are  and  ever  have  been  to  the 
principles  of  peace,  we  were  constrained  to  take  up  arms  against 
China  for  no  other  reason  than  our  desire  to  secure  for  the  Orient 
an  enduring  peace. 

Now  the  friendly  recommendation   of  the  three  powers  was 
equally   prompted   by   the   same   desire.     Consulting,    therefore, 
the  best   interests    of   peace   and  animated   by  a    desire   not   t< 
bring  upon  our  people  added  hardship  or  to  impede  the  pre 
ress  of  national    destiny    by    creating    new    complications    ai 
thereby  making  the  situation  difficult  and  retarding  the  resto 
ration  of  peace,  we  do  not  hesitate  to  accept  such  recommenca- 
tion. 

By  concluding  the  Treaty  of  Peace,  China  has  already  shov.-n 
her  sincerity  of  regret  for  the  violation  of  her  engagements,  anc! 
thereby  the  justice  of  our  cause  has  been  proclaimed  to  thc- 
world. 

Under  the  circumstances  we  can  find  nothing  to  impair  the 
honor  and  dignity  of  our  empire  if  we  now  yield  to  the  dictates 
of  magnanimity  and,  taking  into  consideration  the  general 
situation,  accept  the  advice  of  the  friendly  powers. 

Accordingly  we  have  commanded  our  government,  and  have 
caused  them  to  reply  to  the  three  powers  in  the  above 
sense. 

Regarding  the  arrangements  by  which  w©  will  renoiince  the 

468 


APPENDIX 

permanent  possession  of  the  Peninsula,  we  have  specially  com- 
manded our  government  that  the  necessary  measures  shall  be 
made  the  subject  of  future  negotiations  and  adjustment  with  the 
government  of  China. 

Now,  the  exchange  of  ratifications  of  the  Treaty  of  Peace  has 
already  been  effected,  the  friendly  relations  between  the  two 
Empires  have  been  re-established,  and  cordial  relations  with  all 
other  powers  are  also  strengthened. 

We  therefore  command  our  subjects  to  respect  our  will ;  to  take 
into  careful  consideration  the  general  situation ;  to  be  circumspect 
in  all  things;  to  avoid  erroneous  tendencies;  and  not  to  impair 
or  thwart  the  high  aspirations  of  our  empire. 

[imperial  sign  manual.] 
[countersigned  by  all  ministers  of  state.] 


THE  (REPUTED)  CASSINI  CONVENTION 

TEXT    PUBLISHED    BY    THE     NORTH     CHINA    "DAILY     NEWS  "     AS 

THAT    OF    AN    AGREEMENT    CONCLUDED    AT     PEKIN     BY 

COUNT    CASSINI,    THE     RUSSIAN     MINISTER, 

IN     1895 

His  Imperial  Majesty,  the  Emperor  of  China,  having  received 
the  various  benefits  arising  from  the  loyal  support  of  his  Imperial 
Majesty,  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  at  the  close  of  the  late  war  between 
China  and  Japan,  and  being  desirous  that  the  communications  be- 
tween the  frontier  territories  of  their  respective  empires  and  the 
international  commerce  of  the  two  countries  should  be  managed 
to  their  mutual  advantage,  has  commanded  the  mutual  settlement 
of  certain  matters  in  order  the  better  to  consolidate  the  basis  of 
friendship  between  the  two  empires.  In  this  connection,  there- 
fore, his  Imperial  Majesty,  the  Emperor  of  China,  has  specially  ap- 
pointed the  Imperial  High  Commissioners,  the  Princes  and  great 
officers  of  the  Crown,  composing  the  Imperial  Chinese  Ministrv  of 
War,  with  plenipotentiary  powers,  to  confer  and  agree  upon 
certain  matters,  at  Pekin,  with  his  Excellency,  Count  Cassini, 
Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  of  H.I.M., 
the  Emperor  of  Russia,  to  the  Court  of  China,  concerning  the  con- 
necting of  the  railway  system  of  the  three  Eastern  Provinces 
(Feng-t'ien,  Kirin,  and  Hei-Lung-Kiang)  with  that  of  the  Imperial 
Russian  Railway  in  the  province  of  Siberia,  with  the  object  of 
facilitating  the  transport  of  goods  between  the  two  empires,  and 
of   strengthenmg    the    frontier    defences    and    sea-coasts.     And, 

469 


APPENDIX 

furthermore,  to  agree  upon  certain  special  privileges  to  be  con- 
ceded by  China  to  Russia  as  a  response  to  the  loyal  aid  given 
by  Russia  in  the  retrocession  of  Liaotung  and  its  dependen- 
cies: 

1.  Owing  to  the  fact  that  the  Russian  Great  Siberian  Railway 
is  on  the  point  of  completion,  China  consents  to  allow  Russia  to 
prolong  her  railway  into  Chinese  territories  (a)  from  the  Russian 
port  of  Vladivostock  into  the  Chinese  city  of  Htmchun,  in  the 
province  of  Kirin,  from  thence  northwestward  to  the  provincial 
capital  of  Kirin,  and  (b)  from  a  railway-station  of  some  city  in 
Siberia  to  the  Chinese  town  of  Aigun  in  Hei-Lung-Kiang  province, 
from  thence  southwestward  to  the  provincial  capital  of  Tsitsihar, 
and  from  thence  to  the  town  of  Petunfi  in  Kirin  province, 
and  from  thence  southeastward  to  the  provincial  capital  of 
Kirin. 

2.  All  railways  built  by  Russia  into  the  Chinese  provinces  of 
Hei-Lung-Kiang  and  Kirin  shall  be  built  at  the  sole  expense  of 
Rvtssia,  and  the  regulations  and  buildings  thereof  shall  be  solely 
on  the  Russian  system,  with  which  China  has  nothing  to  do,  and 
the  entire  control  shall  be  in  the  hands  of  Russia  for  the  space  of 
thirty  years.  At  the  end  of  the  said  period  China  shall  be  allowed 
to  prepare  the  necessary  funds  wherewith,  after  proper  estimation 
of  the  value  of  the  said  railway.^,  she  shall  redeem  them,  the  rolling- 
stock,  machine-shops,  and  buildings  connected  therewith.  But 
as  to  how  China  will  at  that  date  redeem  these  railways  shall  be 
left  for  future  consideration. 

3.  China  is  now  in  the  possession  of  a  railway,  which  she  intends 
to  extend  from  Shanhaikwan  into  the  provincial  capital  of  Feng- 
t'ien  —  namely,  Mukden  (Shengking),  and  from  Mukden  to  the 
provincial  capital  of  Kirin.  If  China  should  hereafter  find  it  in- 
convenient to  build  this  road,  she  shall  allow  Russia  to  provide  the 
funds  to  build  the  railway  from  the  city  of  Kirin  on  behalf  of 
China,  the  redemption  of  which  road  shall  be  permissible  to  China 
at  the  end  of  ten  years.  With  reference  to  the  route  to  be  taken 
by  this  railway,  Russia  shall  follow  the  surveys  already  made  by 
China  in  connection  therewith,  from  Kirin  to  Mtikden,  New- 
Chwang,  etc. 

4.  The  railway  to  be  built  by  China,  beginning  from  Shanhaik- 
wan, in  Feng-t'ien,  to  New-Chwang,  to  Kaiping,  to  Chinchou,  to 
Lushunk'ou  (Port  Arthur) ,  and  to  Talienhwan  and  their  depen- 
dencies, shall  follow  the  Russian  railway  regulations,  in  order  to 
facilitate  the  commercial  intercourse  between  the  respective  em- 
pires. 

5.  With  reference  to  the  railways  to  be  built  by  Russia  into 
Chinese  territory,  the  routes  along  which  the  said  roads  shall  pass 

470 


APPENDIX 

must  be  protected,  as  usual,  by  the  local,  civil,  and  military  offi- 
cials of  the  country.  They  shall,  moreover,  afford  all  facilities 
and  aid  to  the  civil  and  military  officials  of  Russia  at  the  various 
railway-stations,  together  with  all  the  Russian  artisans  and  labor- 
ers connected  therewith.  But,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  said 
railways  will  pass,  for  the  greater  part,  through  barren  and  sparse- 
ly inhabited  territory,  in  which  it  will  be  difficiilt  for  the  Chinese 
authorities  to  be  always  able  to  grant  the  necessary  protection  and 
aid,  Russia  shall  be  allowed  to  place  special  battalions  of  horse  and 
foot  soldiers  at  the  various  important  stations  for  the  better  pro- 
tection of  the  railway  property. 

6.  With  reference  to  the  customs  duties  to  be  collected  on 
goods  exported  from  and  imported  into  the  respective  countries 
by  the  said  railways,  they  shall  follow  the  regulations  provided  by 
the  Treaty  of  Commerce  between  China  and  Russia,  ratified  in  the 
first  year  of  the  reign  of  Tung  Chin,  fourth  day,  second  moon 
(20th  of  February,  1862,  O.  S.),  regulating  overland  transit  of 
goods  between  the  two  empires. 

7.  There  has  always  been  in  existence  a  rule  prohibiting  the  ex- 
ploitation of  the  mines  in  Hei-Lung-Kiang  and  Kirin  provinces,  and 
in  the  Ch'angpai  mountains  (Long  White  mountain  range) .  After 
the  ratification  of  this  Treaty,  Russians  and  subjects  of  the  Chinese 
Empire  shall  be  permitted  hereafter  to  exploit  and  open  any  of 
the  mines  therein  mentioned ;  but  before  doing  so  they  shall  be 
required  first  to  petition  the  Chinese  local  authorities  on  the  sub- 
ject, who,  on  the  other  hand,  shall  grant  the  necessary  commis- 
sions (huchas)  in  accordance  with  the  mining  regulations  in  force 
in  China  Proper. 

8.  Although  there  exist  certain  battalions  of  foreign-drilled 
troops  (Lienchun)  in  the  three  Eastern  provinces,  yet  the  greater 
portion  of  the  local  territorial  Army  Corps  thereof  still  follow  the 
ancient  regulations  of  the  empire.  Should,  therefore,  China  in 
the  future  require  to  reform,  in  accordance  with  the  Western  sys- 
tem, the  whole  army  organization  of  the  said  provinces,  she  shall 
be  permitted  to  engage  from  Russia  qualified  military  officers  for 
that  purpose,  and  the  rules  for  the  guidance  of  this  arrangement 
shall  be  in  accordance  with  those  obtaining  in  the  Liang- Kiang 
provinces  in  regard  to  the  German  military  officers  now  engaged 
there. 

g.  Russia  has  never  possessed  a  seaport  in  Asia  which  is  free 
from  ice  and  open  all  the  year  round.  If,  therefore,  there  should 
suddenly  arise  military  operations  in  this  Continent,  it  will  natu- 
rally be  difficult  for  the  Russian  Eastern  Seas  and  Pacific  Fleets  to 
move  about  freely  and  at  pleasure.  As  China  is  well  aware  of  this, 
she  is  willing  to  lease  temporarily  to  Russia  the  port  of  Kiaochou, 

471 


APPENDIX 

in  the  province  of  Shan-Tung,  the  period  of  such  lease  being  lim- 
ited to  fifteen  years.  At  the  end  of  this  period  China  shall  buy  all 
the  barracks,  godowns,  machine-shops,  and  docks  built  there  by 
Russia  (during  her  occupation  of  the  said  port).  But,  should 
there  be  no  danger  of  military  operations,  Russia  shall  not  enter 
immediately  into  possession  of  the  said  port,  or  hold  the  impor- 
tant points  dominating  the  port,  in  order  to  obviate  the  chance  of 
exciting  the  jealousy  and  suspicions  of  other  powers.  With  ref- 
erence to  the  amount  of  rent  and  the  way  it  is  to  be  paid,  this  shall 
form  the  subject  of  consideration  in  a  Protocol  at  some  future 
date. 

10.  As  the  Liaotung  ports  of  Lushunk'ou  (Port  Arthur)  and 
Talienhwan  and  their  dependencies  are  important  strategical 
points,  it  shall  be  incumbent  upon  China  to  properly  fortify  them 
with  all  haste,  and  to  repair  all  their  fortifications,  etc.,  in  order  to 
provide  against  future  dangers;  Russia  shall,  therefore,  lend  all 
necessary  assistance  in  helping  to  protect  these  two  ports,  and  shall 
not  permit  any  foreign  power  to  encroach  upon  them.  China,  on 
her  part,  also  binds  herself  never  to  cede  them  to  another  country, 
but  if,  in  futvire,  the  exigencies  of  the  case  require  it,  and  Rus- 
sia should  find  herself  suddenly  involved  in  a  war,  China  consents 
to  allow  Russia  temporarily  to  concentrate  her  land  and  naval 
forces  within  the  said  ports,  in  order  the  better  to  enable  Russia 
to  attack  the  enemy  or  to  guard  her  own  position. 

11.  If,  however,  there  be  no  danger  of  military  operations  in 
which  Russia  is  engaged,  China  shall  have  entire  control  over  the 
administration  of  the  said  ports  of  Lushunk'ou  and  Talienhwan ; 
nor  shall  Russia  interfere  in  any  way  therein.  But,  as  regards  the 
building  of  the  railway  in  the  three  Eastern  Provinces,  and  the 
exploitation  and  opening  of  the  mines  therein,  they  shall  be  per- 
mitted to  be  proceeded  with  immediately  after  the  ratification  of 
this  Convention,  and  at  the  pleasure  of  the  people  concerned  there- 
in. With  reference  to  the  Civil  and  Military  officers  of  Russia  and 
Russian  merchants  and  traders  travelling  (in  any  part  of  the  terri- 
tories herein  mentioned) ,  wherever  they  shall  go,  they  shall  be 
given  all  the  privilege  of  prptection  and  facilities  within  the  power 
of  the  local  authorities;  nor  shall  these  officials  be  allowed  to  put 
obstructions  in  the  way  or  delay  the  journeys  of  the  Russian  officers 
and  subjects  herein  mentioned. 

12.  After  this  Convention  shall  have  received  the  respective 
signatures  of  their  Imperial  Majesties  (the  Emperors  of  China  and 
of  Russia)  the  articles  included  therein  shall  go  into  immediate 
force,  and,  with  the  excej)tion  of  the  clauses  regarding  Port  Ar- 
thur, Talienhwan,  and  Kiaochou,  shall  be  notified  to  the  various 
local  authorities  of  the  two  empires.     As  to  the  place  for  the  ex* 

472 


APPENDIX 

change  of  ratifications,  it  shall  be  left  to  be  decided  at  some  future 
time,  but  the  exchange  shall  take  place  within  the  space  of  six 
months. 

It  has,  furthermore,  been  agreed  upon  between  the  respective 
Plenipotentiaries  of  the  High  Contracting  Powers  to  make  this 
Convention  out  in  three  languages — namely,  Chinese,  Russian, 
and  French,  one  copy  of  each  language  to  be  held  by  the  respec- 
tive High  Contracting  Parties,  after  the  signing  and  sealing  there- 
of. And  it  has,  furthermore,  been  shown,  upon  comparison,  that 
the  contents  of  the  documents,  as  given  in  the  three  languages 
aforesaid,  tally  with  each  other  in  all  respects;  but  in  case  of 
dispute,  in  the  future,  the  wording  of  the  French  copy  shall  be 
deemed  the  correct  version. 


THE  RUSSO-MANCHURIAN  RAILWAY  AGREEMENT 

STATUTES  OF  THE  CHINESE   EASTERN   RAILWAY   COMPANY 

Section  i .  On  the  strength  of  the  Agreement  concluded  on  the 
27th  August  (8th  September),  1896,  by  the  Imperial  Chinese 
Government  with  the  Russo-Chinese  Bank,  a  Company  is  formed, 
under  the  name  of  the  "Eastern  Chinese  Railway  Company,"  for 
the  construction  and  working  of  a  railway  within  the  confines  of 
China,  from  one  of  the  points  on  the  western  borders  of  the  Prov- 
ince of  Hei-Lung-Kiang  to  one  of  the  points  on  the  eastern  bor- 
ders of  the  Province  of  Kirin,  and  for  the  connection  of  this  rail- 
way with  those  branches  which  the  Imperial  Russian  Govern- 
ment will  construct  to  the  Chinese  frontier  from  Trans- Baikalia 
and  the  Southern  Ussuri  lines. 

The  Company  is  empowered,  subject  to  the  sanction  of  the 
Chinese  Government,  to  exploit,  in  connection  with  the  railway, 
or  independently  of  it,  coal-mines,  as  also  to  exploit  in  China  other 
enterprises — mining,  industrial,  and  commercial.  For  the  work- 
ing of  these  enterprises,  which  may  be  independent  of  the  railway, 
the  Company  shall  keep  accounts  separate  from  those  of  the  rail- 
way. 

The  formation  of  the  Company  shall  be  undertaken  by  the 
Russo-Chinese  Bank. 

With  the  formation  of  the  Company  all  rights  and  obligations 
are  transferred  to  it  in  regard  to  the  construction  and  working  of 
the  line  ceded  in  virtue  of  the  above-named  Agreement  of  the  27th 
August  (8th  September),  1896. 

The  Company  shall  be  recognized  as  formed  on  the  presentation 
to  the  Minister  of  Finances  of  a  Warrant  of  the  State  Bank,  certify- 

473 


APPENDIX 

ing  the  payment  of  the  first  instalment  on  the  shares.  In  any 
case,  such  payment  must  be  made  not  later  than  two  months  from 
the  day  of  confirmation  of  the  present  Statutes. 

The  succeeding  instalments  on  the  shares  shall  be  paid  in  such 
order  of  gradation  that  the  shares  shall  be  fully  paid  up  at  their 
nominal  value  not  later  than  one  year  from  the  day  of  formation 
of  the  Company. 

Owners  of  shares  of  the  Company  may  only  be  Russian  and 
Chinese  subjects. 

Section  2.  In  virtue  of  the  Agreement  with  the  Chinese  gov- 
ernment, the  Company  shall  retain  possession  of  the  Chinese  East- 
em  Railway  during  the  course  of  eighty  years  from  the  day  of  the 
opening  of  traffic  along  the  whole  line. 

Section  3.  In  recognition  that  the  enterprise  of  the  Chinese 
Eastern  Railway  will  be  realized  only  owing  to  the  guarantee 
given  by  the  Russian  Government  in  regard  to  the  revenue  of  the 
line  for  covering  working  expenses,  as  well  as  for  effecting  the  ob- 
ligatory payments  on  the  bonds  (sections  11,  16),  the  Company 
on  its  part  binds  itself  to  the  Russian  Government,  during  the 
whole  term  of  the  Concession,  under  the  following  obligations: 

(A)  The  Chinese  Eastern  Railway,  with  all  its  appurtenances 
and  rolling-stock,  must  be  always  maintained  in  full  order  for  sat- 
isfying all  the  requirements  of  the  service  of  the  line  in  regard  to 
the  safety,  comfort,  and  uninterrupted  conveyance  of  passengers 
and  goods. 

(B)  The  traffic  on  the  Chinese  Eastern  line  must  be  maintained 
conformably  with  the  degree  of  traffic  on  the  Russian  railway  lines 
adjoining  the  Chinese  line. 

(C)  The  trains  of  all  descriptions  running  between  the  Russian 
Trans-Baikal  and  Ussuri  lines  shall  be  received  by  the  Chinese 
Eastern  Railway  and  despatched  to  their  destination,  in  full  com- 
plement, without  delay. 

(D)  All  through  trains,  both  passenger  and  goods,  shall  be  de- 
spatched by  the  Eastern  Chinese  Railway  at  rates  of  speed  not 
lower  than  those  which  shall  be  adopted  on  the  Siberian  Rail- 
way. 

(E)  The  Chinese  Eastern  Railway  is  bound  to  establish  and 
maintain  a  telegraph  along  the  whole  extent  of  the  line,  and  to 
connect  it  with  the  telegraph  wire  of  the  Russian  adjoining  rail- 
ways, and  to  receive  and  despatch,  without  delay,  through  tele- 
grams sent  from  one  frontier  station  of  the  line  to  another,  as  also 
telegrams  sent  from  Russia  to  China,  and  conversely. 

(F)  Should,  with  the  development  of  traffic  on  the  Chinese 
Eastern  Railway,  its  technical  organization  prove  insufficient  for 
satisfying  the  requirements  of  a  regular  and  uninterrupted  passen- 

474 


APPENDIX 

ger  and  goods  traffic,  the  Chinese  Eastern  Railway  shall  imme- 
diately, on  receipt  of  a  notification  on  the  part  of  the  Russian  rail- 
ways to  augment  its  capacity  to  a  corresponding  degree,  adopt  the 
necessary  measures  for  further  developing  its  technical  organiza- 
tion and  the  traffic  on  it.  In  the  event  of  a  difference  of  opinion 
arising  between  the  above-mentioned  railways,  the  Chinese  East- 
em  Railway  shall  submit  to  the  decision  of  the  Russian  Minister 
of  Finances.  If  the  means  at  the  command  of  the  Chinese  East- 
em  Railway  prove  insufficient  for  carrying  out  the  necessary  work 
of  its  development,  the  Board  of  Management  of  the  railway  may 
at  all  times  apply  to  the  Russian  Minister  of  Finances  for  pecu- 
niary assistance  on  the  part  of  the  Ru?sian  Government. 

(G)  For  all  transit  conveyance  of  passengers  and  goods,  as  also 
for  the  transmission  of  telegrams,  there  will  be  established  by 
agreement  of  the  Company  with  the  Russian  Government,  for  the 
whole  term  of  duration  of  the  Concession, 

11  Maximum  Tariffs,  which  cannot  be  raised  without  the  con- 
sent of  the  Russian  Government  during  the  whole  term  above  re- 
ferred to.  Within  these  limits  the  Tariffs  of  direct  communica- 
tion, both  for  railway  carriages  and  telegrams,  will  be  fixed  by  the 
Board  of  Management  of  the  Company  on  the  strength  of  a  mutual 
agreement  with  the  Russian  Minister  of  Finances. 

(H)  The  Russian  letter  and  parcels  post,  as  also  the  officials 
accompanying  the  same,  shall  be  carried  by  the  Chinese  Eastern 
Railway  free  of  charge. 

For  this  purpose  the  Company  shall  set  apart  in  each  ordinary 
passenger  train  a  carriage  compartment  of  three  fathoms  in  length. 
The  Russian  postal  authorities  may,  moreover,  if  they  deem  it 
necessary,  place  on  the  line  postal  carriages,  constructed  by  them 
at  their  own  cost;  and  the  repair,  maintenance  (interior  fittings 
excepted) ,  as  well  as  the  running  of  such  carriages  with  the  trains, 
shall  be  free  of  charge  and  at  the  cost  of  the  railway. 

The  above-mentioned  engagements — by  which,  as  already 
stated,  the  grant  of  a  guarantee  by  the  Russian  Government  is 
conditioned,  and  the  consequent  realization  of  the  enterprise  of 
the  Chinese  Eastern  Railway — shall  be  binding  on  the  railway 
until  the  same,  after  the  expiration  of  the  eighty  years'  term  of 
the  Concession  shall,  without  payment,  become  the  property  of 
the  Chinese  Government  (section  29).  The  redemption  of  the 
line  from  the  Company  before  the  above-mentioned  term,  in  ac- 
cordance with  section  30  of  the  present  Statutes,  shall  not  in  any 
way  diminish  the  effect  of  the  above-specified  engagements,  and 
these  latter,  together  with  the  railway,  shall  be  transferred  to  its 
new  proprietor. 

In  the  same  manner,  during  the  course  of  the  whole  eighty 

475 


APPENDIX 

years'  term  of  the  Concession  (^  21 ,  the  following  privileges  grant- 
ed to  the  railway  by  the  Imperial  Chinese  Government  shall  r**- 
main  in  force: 

(a)  Passengers'  luggage,  as  also  goods,  carried  in  transit  from 
one  Russian  station  (?  to  another)  shall  not  be  liable  to  any  Chinese 
customs  duties,  and  shall  be  exempt  from  all  internal  Chinese 
dues  and  taxes. 

(b)  The  rates  for  the  carriage  of  passengers  and  goods,  for  tele- 
grams, etc.,  shall  be  free  from  all  Chinese  taxes  and  dues. 

(c)  Goods  imported  from  Russia  into  China  by  rail,  and  ex- 
ported from  China  to  Russia  in  the  same  manner,  shall  pay  respec- 
tively an  import  or  export  Chinese  duty  to  the  extent  of  one-third 
less  as  compared  with  the  duty  imposed  at  Chinese  seaport  cus- 
tom-houses. 

(d)  If  goods  imported  by  the  railway  are  destined  for  convey- 
ance inland,  they  shall  in  such  case  be  subject  to  payment  of  transit 
duty  to  the  extent  of  one-half  of  the  import  duty  levied  on  them, 
and  they  shall  then  be  exempted  from  any  additional  imposts. 
Goods  which  shall  not  have  paid  transit  duty  shall  be  liable  to 
payment  of  all  established  internal  carrier  and  lits-zin  (?  likin) 
dues. 

Section  4.  In  regard  to  the  place  of  acquisition  of  materials  for 
the  requirements  of  the  railway,  the  Company  shall  not  be  liable 
to  any  limitations.  If  materials  be  obtained  beyond  the  confines 
of  Russia,  they  shall,  on  importation  through  Russian  territory, 
be  freed  from  payment  of  Russian  customs  duties. 

Section  5.  The  breadth  of  the  railway  track  must  be  the  same  as 
that  of  the  Russian  lines  (five  feet). 

The  Company  must  cornmence  the  work  not  later  than  the  i6th 
August,  1897,  and  conduct  it  in  such  a  manner  that  the  whole  line 
shall  be  completed  not  later  than  six  years  from  the  time  when  the 
direction  of  the  line  shall  be  finally  determined  and  the  necessary 
land  assigned  to  the  Company. 

When  tracing  the  line  of  the  railway,  cemeteries  and  graves,  as 
also  towns  and  villages,  must,  so  far  as  possible,  be  left  aside  of  the 
railway. 

When  effecting  the  connection,  in  accordance  with  section  i  of 
these  Statutes,  of  the  Chinese  Eastern  Railway  with  the  Russian 
Trans-Baikal  and  South  Ussuri  lines,  the  Company  shall  have  the 
right,  with  a  view  to  reduction  of  expenditure,  of  abstaining  from 
bviilding  its  own  frontier  stations  and  of  utilizing  the  frontier  sta- 
tions of  the  above-named  Russian  lines.  The  conditions  on  which 
they  shall  be  so  utilized  shall  be  determined  by  agreement  of  the 
Board  of  the  Company  with  the  Boards  of  the  respective  rail- 
ways, 

476 


APPENDIX 

Section  6.  The  tariffs  for  the  carriage  of  passengers  and  goods, 
as  also  for  supplementary  carriage  rates,  shall  be  determined  by 
the  Company  itself,  within  the  limits  indicated  in  section  3. 

Section  7.  Crimes,  litigation,  etc.,  on  the  territory  of  the  Chinese 
Eastern  Railway  shall  be  dealt  with  by  local  authorities,  Chinese 
and  Russian,  on  the  basis  of  existing  Treaties. 

In  regard  to  the  carriage  of  passengers  and  goods,  the  responsi- 
bility of  such  conveyance,  the  lapse  of  time  for  claims,  the  order  of 
recovering  money  from  the  railway  when  adjudged,  and  the  rela- 
tions of  the  railway  to  the  public  shall  be  defined  in  rules  drawn 
up  by  the  Company  and  established  before  the  opening  of  the  rail- 
way traffic;  and  these  rules  shall  be  framed  in  accordance  with 
those  existing  on  Russian  railways. 

Section  8.  The  Chinese  Government  has  undertaken  to  adopt 
measures  for  securing  the  safety  of  the  railway  and  of  all  employed 
on  it  against  any  extraneous  attacks. 

The  preservation  of  order  and  decorum  on  the  lands  assigned  to 
the  railway  and  its  appurtenances  shall  be  confided  to  police 
agents  appointed  by  the  Company. 

The  Company  shall,  for  this  purpose,  draw  up  and  establish 
police  regulations. 

Section  9.  The  whole  amount  of  the  capital  of  the  Company 
shall  be  determined  according  to  the  cost  of  construction  calcu- 
lated on  the  basis  of  estimates  framed  when  the  survey  of  the  line 
was  carried  out.  The  foundation  capital  shall  be  charged  with 
(a)  the  payment  of  interest  and  amortization  of  the  foundation 
capital  during  the  construction  of  the  railway;  (b)  the  purchase 
from  the  Russian  Government  of  the  results  of  the  surveys  of  the 
direction  of  the  railway  to  Manchuria  which  were  made  by  Russian 
engineers;  the  sum  payable  for  these  surveys  will  be  determined 
by  agreement  of  the  Russian  Minister  of  Finances  with  the  Com- 
pany. 

The  capital  of  the  Company  shall  be  formed  by  the  issue  of 
shares  and  bonds. 

Section  10.  The  share  capital  of  the  Company  shall  be  fixed  at 
5,000,000  nominal  credit  rubles,  and  divided  into  1000  shares  at 
5000  nominal  credit  rubles. 

The  shares  are  to  be  issued  at  their  nominal  value. 

The  guarantee  of  the  Russian  Government  does  not  extend  to 
them. 

Section  11.  The  remaining  portion  of  the  capital  of  the  Com- 
pany will  be  formed  by  the  issue  of  bonds.  The  bonds  will  Ye 
issued  in  measure  of  requirement,  and  each  time  with  the  special 
sanction  of  the  Minister  of  Finances.  The  nominal  amount  and 
value  of  each  separate  issue  of  bonds,  the  time  and  condition  of 

477 


APPENDIX 

the  issue,  as  also  the  form  of  these  bonds,  shall  be  subject  to  the 
sanction  of  the  Minister  of  Finances. 

The  Russian  Government  will  guarantee  the  interest  on  and 
amortization  of  the  bonds. 

For  the  realization  of  these  bonds  the  Company  must  have  re- 
course to  the  Russo-Chinese  Bank,  but  the  Russian  Government  re- 
serves to  itself  the  right  of  appropriating  the  bond  loan  at  a  price 
which  shall  be  determinded  between  the  Company  and  the  Bank, 
and  to  pay  to  the  Company  the  agreed  amount  in  ready  money. 

Section  12.  As  payments  are  received  for  bonds  guaranteed  by 
the  Russian  Government,  the  Company  shall  be  boimd  to  keep 
such  sums,  or  interest-bearing  securities  purchased  with  the  same 
by  permission  of  the  Russian  Minister  of  Finances,  under  the 
special  supervision  of  the  Russian  Ministry  of  Finances. 

Out  of  the  above  receipts  the  Company  shall  have  the  right  to 
make  the  following  payments: 

(a)  According  to  actual  fulfilment  of  the  work  in  progress 
and  execution  of  orders,  and  at  the  time  when  various  expendi- 
tures shall  become  necessary,  such  payments  to  be  made  on  the 
scale  and  on  the  conditions  specified  in  the  working  estimates. 

(b)  During  the  construction  of  the  line,  of  interest,  as  it  be- 
comes due,  on  the  bonds  issued  by  the  Compan)'-,  subject  to  the 
conditions  of  their  issue,  and  the  Company  shall  pay  the  sums 
necessary  for  the  above  purpose  within  the  limits  of  the  amount 
realized  by  it  in  the  emission  of  its  bonds. 

Section  13.  On  the  payment  of  the  first  allotment  on  the  shares, 
the  founders  shall  receive  temporary  certificates,  on  which,  subse- 
quently, when  the  Board  of  Management  of  the  Company  shall 
have  been  formed,  the  receipt  of  the  further  instalments  on  the 
shares  will  be  inscribed. 

When  the  shares  shall  be  fully  paid  up,  the  temporary  certifi- 
cates issued  to  the  founders  shall  be  replaced  by  shares. 

The  shares  of  the  Company  are  issued  to  bearer,  under  the  sig- 
nature of  not  fewer  than  three  members  of  the  Board  of  Manage- 
ment. To  the  shares  will  be  attached  a  coupon-sheet  for  the  re- 
ceipt once  yearly  under  them  of  any  dividend  that  may  be  pay- 
able. On  the  coupon-sheets  becoming  exhausted,  new  sheets  will 
be  issued.  A  dividend  on  the  shares  out  of  the  net  profits  of  any 
year,  supposing  such  accrue,  shall  be  payable  on  the  adoption  by 
the  general  meeting  of  shareholders  of  the  annual  report  for  that 
year,  and  the  dividend  shall  be  payable  at  the  offices  of  the  Com- 
pany, or  at  such  places  which  it  may  indicate. 

The  Company  shall  notify,  for  general  information  in  the  Official 
Gazette  and  in  the  Finance  Messenger,  as  also  in  one  of  the  Chinese 
newspapers,  the  extent  and  place  of  payment  of  the  dividend, 

478 


APPENDIX 

Section    14.  The   reserve   capital   is   destined 

(a)  For  the  capital  repair  of  the  railway,  its  buildings  and  ap- 
purtenances. 

(b)  For  defraj'ing  extraordinary  expenditure  of  the  Company 
in  repairing  the  railway  and  its  appurtenances. 

The  reserve  capital  of  the  Company  is  formed  out  of  annual 
sums  put  aside  from  the  net  profits  of  the  working  of  the  railway 
(section  17). 

The  reserve  capital  must  be  kept  in  Russian  State  interest- 
bearing  securities,  or  in  railway  bonds  guaranteed  by  the  Russian 
Government. 

At  the  expiration  of  the  term  of  possession  of  the  railway  by 
the  Company,  the  reserve  capital  shall  be,  first  of  all,  employed  in 
the  payment  of  the  debts  of  the  Company,  including  among  them 
sums  dtie  to  the  Russian  Government,  if  such  exist;  and  after  the 
debts  of  the  Company  shall  have  been  paid,  the  remainder  of  the 
reserve  capital  shall  be  divided  among  the  shareholders.  In  the 
event  of  the  redemption  of  the  railway  by  the  Chinese  Govern- 
ment, the  reserve  capital  becomes  the  property  of  the  sharehold- 
ers. 

Section  15.  The  net  revenue  of  the  Company  shall  be  the  re- 
mainder of  the  gross  receipts  after  deduction  of  working  expenses. 
Under  these  expenses  are  classed: 

(a)  General  outlays,  including  assignments  towards  pension 
and  relief  funds,  if  such  be  established  on  the  line. 

(b)  Maintenance  of  the  staff  of  the  Board  of  Management,  and 
of  all  the  services,  as  also  the  maintenance  of  employes  and  la- 
borers not  on  the  permanent  list. 

(c)  Ovitlays  for  materials  and  articles  used  for  the  railway,  as 
also  expenditure  in  the  shape  of  remuneration  for  using  buildings, 
rolling-stock,  and  other  various  requisites  for  the  purposes  of  the 
railway. 

(d)  Outlays  for  the  maintenance,  repair,  and  renewal  of  the  per- 
manent way,  works  of  construction,  buildings,  rolling-stock,  and 
other  appurtenances  of  the  railway. 

(e)  Expenditure  connected  with  the  adoption  of  the  measures 
and  instructions  of  the  Board  of  Management  for  insuring  the 
safety  and  regularity  of  the  railway  service. 

(f)  Expenditure  for  the  improvement  and  development  of  the 
railway,  as  also  the  creating  and  developing  its  resources. 

Section  16.  Should  the  gross  receipts  of  the  railway  prove  in- 
sufficient for  defraying  the  working  expenses  and  for  meeting  the 
yearly  payments  due  on  the  bonds,  the  Company  will  receive  the 
deficient  sum  from  the  Russian  Government,  through  the  Rus- 
sian Minister  of  Finances.     The  payments  referred  to  will  be  made 

479 


APPENDIX 

to  the  Company  as  advances,  at  a  rate  of  interest  of  six  per  cent, 
per  annum.  Sums  paid  in  excess  to  the  Company  in  consequence 
of  its  demands  and  on  account  of  the  guarantee  will  be  deducted 
from  succeeding  money  payments. 

On  the  presentation  to  the  general  meeting  of  shareholders  of  the 
annual  report  of  the  working  of  the  railway  for  a  given  year,  the 
Company  shall  at  the  same  time  submit  to  the  general  meeting, 
for  confirmation,  a  detailed  statement  of  the  sums  owing  by  the 
Company  to  the  Russian  Government,  with  the  interest  that  has 
accrued  thereon.  On  the  confirmation  of  this  statement  b}''  the 
general  meeting,  the  Board  of  Management  shall  deliver  to  the 
Russian  Government  an  acknowledgment  of  the  Company's  debt, 
to  the  full  determined  amount  of  the  same,  and  this  acknowledg- 
ment, \mtil  its  substitution  by  another,  shall  bear  annually  inter- 
est at  the  rate  of  six  per  cent. 

The  acknowledgment  above  mentioned,  given  by  the  Board  of 
Management  to  the  Russian  Government,  shall  not  be  subject  to 
bill  or  deed  stamp  tax. 

Subjects  of  minor  importance  are  dealt  with  in  the  following 
sections: 

Section  17.   Distribution  of  net  profits  of  the  railway. 

Section  iS.  Functions  of  Board  of  Management,  the  seal  of 
which  will  be  at  Pekin  and  St.  Petersburg. 

Section  19.  Constitution  of  the  Board,  which  is  to  consist  of  nine 
members  elected  by  the  shareholders.  The  Chairman  is  to  be 
appointed  by  the  Chinese  Government.  The  Vice-Chairman  is  to 
be  chosen  by  the  members  of  the  Board  from  among  themselves. 

Sections  20-28.   Administrative  details. 

Section  2q.  In  accordance  with  the  Agreement  concluded  with 
the  Chinese  Government,  the  latter,  after  the  expiration  of  eighty 
years  of  possession  of  the  railway  by  the  Company,  enters  into 
possession  of  it  and  its  appurtenances. 

The  reserve  and  other  funds  belonging  to  the  Company  shall  be 
employed  in  paying  the  money  due  to  the  Russian  Government 
under  the  guarantee  (section  16),  and  in  satisfaction  of  other 
debts  of  the  Company,  and  the  remainder  shall  be  distributed 
among  the  shareholders. 

Any  money  that  may  remain  owing  by  the  Company  to  the 
Russian  Government  at  the  expiration  of  eighty  years  in  respect 
of  the  guarantee  shall  be  written  off.  The  Russo-Chinese  Bank 
will  incur  no  responsibility  in  respect  of  the  same. 

Section  30.  In  accordance  with  the  Agreement  concluded  with 
the  Chinese  Government,  on  the  expiration  of  thirty-six  years 
from  the  time  of  completion  of  the  whole  line  and  its  opening 
for  trafhc,  the  Chinese  Government  has  the  right  of  acquiring  the 

480 


APPENDIX 

line,  on  refunding  to  the  Company  in  full  all  the  outlays  made  on 
it,  and  on  payment  for  everything  done  for  the  requirements  of 
the  railway,  such  payments  to  be  made  with  accrued  interest. 

It  follows,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  the  portion  of  the  share 
capital  which  has  been  amortized  by  drawing,  and  the  part  of  the 
debt  owing  to  the  Russian  Government  under  the  guarantee,  and 
repaid  out  of  the  net  profits  (section  1 7)  will  not  constitute  part 
of  the  purchase  money. 

In  no  case  can  the  Chinese  Government  enter  into  possession  of 
the  railway  before  it  has  lodged  in  the  Russian  State  Bank  the 
necessary  purchase  money. 

The  purchase  money  lodged  by  the  Chinese  Government  shall 
be  employed  in  paying  the  debt  of  the  Company  under  its  bonds, 
and  all  sums,  with  interest,  owing  to  the  Russian  Government, 
the  remainder  of  the  money  being  then  at  the  disposal  of  the  share- 
holders. 


ANGLO-RUSSIAN  AGREEMENT  RESPECTING  SPHERES 
OF  INFLUENCE  IN  CHINA 

(Signed  April  28,  i8gp) 

Sir  C.  Scott  to  Count  Mouravieff: 

The  undersigned  British  Ambassador,  duly  authorized  to  that 
effect,  has  the  honor  to  make  the  following  declaration  to  his  Ex- 
cellency Count  Mouravieff,  the  Russian  Minister  of  Foreign  Af- 
fairs: Great  Britain  and  Russia,  animated  by  a  sincere  desire  to 
avoid  in  China  all  cause  of  conflict  on  questions  where  their  inter- 
ests meet,  and  taking  into  consideration  the  economic  and  geo- 
graphical gravitation  of  certain  parts  of  the  empire,  have  agreed 
as  follows: 

1 .  Great  Britain  engages  not  to  seek  for  her  own  account,  or  on 
behalf  of  British  subjects,  or  of  others,  any  railway  concession  to 
the  north  of  the  Great  Wall  of  China,  and  not  to  obstruct,  directly 
or  indirectly,  applications  for  railway  concessions  in  that  region 
supported  by  the  Russian  government. 

2.  Russia,  on  her  part,  engages  not  to  seek  for  her  own  accotmt, 
or  in  behalf  of  Russian  subjects,  or  of  others,  any  railway  conces- 
sion on  the  basin  of  the  Yang-tse,  and  not  to  obstruct,  directly 
or  indirectly,  applications  for  railway  concessions  in  that  region 
supported  by  the  British  government. 

The  two  contracting  parties,  having  no  wise  in  view  to  infringe 
in  any  way  the  sovereign  rights  of  China  on  existing  treaties,  will 
not  fail  to  communicate  to  the  Chinese  government  the  present 
3»  481 


APPENDIX 

arrangement,  which,  by  averting  all  cause  of  complications  be- 
tween them,  is  of  a  natvire  to  consolidate  peace  in  the  Far  East, 
and  to  serve  primordial  interests  of  China  itself. 

(Signed)   Charles  S.  Scott. 
St.  Petersburg,  April  28,  iSgg. 

(A  copy  of  the  above  note  was  signed  at  the  same  time  by  the 
Russian  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  "duly  authorized  to  that 
effect.") 


TREATY   OF   OFFENSIVE   AND    DEFENSIVE   ALLIANCE 
BETWEEN  GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  JAPAN 

{Signed  at  London,  January  jo,   igo2) 

The  governments  of  Great  Britain  and  Japan,  actuated  solely 
by  a  desire  to  maintain  the  status  quo  and  general  peace  in  the 
extreme  East,  being  moreover  specially  interested  in  maintaining 
the  independence  and  territorial  integrity  of  the  Empire  of  China 
and  the  Empire  of  Korea,  and  in  securing  equal  opportunities  in 
those  countries  for  the  commerce  and  industry  of  all  nations, 
hereby  agree  as  follows: 

Article  I.  The  high  contracting  parties  having  mutually  recog- 
nized the  independence  of  China  and  of  Korea,  declare  themselves 
to  be  entirely  uninfluenced  by  an)'  aggressive  tendencies  in  either 
country.  Having  in  view,  however,  their  special  interests,  of 
which  those  of  Great  Britain  relate  principally  to  China,  while 
Japan,  in  addition  to  the  intei'ests  which  she  possesses  in  China,  is 
interested  in  a  peculiar  degree  politically,  as  well  as  commercially 
and  industrially,  in  Korea,  the  high  contracting  parties  recognize 
that  it  will  be  admissible  for  either  of  them  to  take  such  measures 
as  may  be  indispensable  in  order  to  safeguard  those  interests  if 
threatened  either  by  the  aggressive  action  of  any  other  power,  or 
by  disturbances  arising  in  China  or  Korea,  and  necessitating  the 
intervention  of  either  of  the  high  contracting  parties  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  lives  and  property  of  its  subjects. 

Article  II.  If  either  Great  Britain  or  Japan,  in  the  defence  of 
their  respective  interests  as  above  described,  should  become  in- 
volved in  war  with  another  power,  the  other  high  contracting 
party  will  maintain  a  strict  neutrality,  and  use  its  efforts  to  pre- 
vent other  powers  from  joining  in  hostilities  against  its  ally. 

Article  III.  If  in  the  above  event  any  other  power  or  powers 
should  join  in  hostilities  against  that  ally,  the  other  high  contract- 

482 


APPENDIX 

ing  party  will  come  to  its  assistance  and  will  conduct  the  war  in 
common,  and  make  peace  in  mutual  agreement  with  it. 

Article  IV.  The  high  contracting  parties  agree  that  neither  of 
them  will,  without  consulting  the  other,  enter  into  separate  ar- 
rangements with  another  power  to  the  prejudice  of  the  interests 
above  described. 

Article  V.  Whenever,  in  the  opinion  of  either  Great  Britain 
or  Japan,  the  above-mentioned  interests  are  in  jeopardy,  the 
two  governments  will  communicate  with  each  other  fully  and 
frankly. 

Article  VI.  The  present  agreement  shall  come  into  effect  im- 
mediately after  the  date  of  its  signature,  and  remain  in  force  for 
five  years  from  that  date. 

In  case  neither  of  the  high  contracting  parties  should  have  no- 
tified twelve  months  before  the  expiration  of  the  said  five  years 
the  intention  of  terminating  it,  it  shall  remain  binding  until  the 
expiration  of  one  year  from  the  day  on  which  either  of  the  high 
contracting  parties  shall  have  denounced  it.  But  if,  when  the 
date  fixed  for  its  expiration  arrives,  either  ally  is  actually  engaged 
in  war,  the  alliance  shall,  ipso  facto,  continue  until  peace  is  con- 
cluded. 

In  faith  whereof  the  undersigned,  duly  authorized  by  their  re- 
spective go\-ernments,  have  signed  this  agreement,  and  have  af- 
fixed thereto  their  seals. 

Done  in  duplicate  at  London  the  30th  January,  1902. 

[l.  s.]  Lansdowne, 

His  Britannic  Majesty's  Principal  Secretary  of 
State  for  Foreign  Affairs. 

[l.  s.]  Havashi, 

Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipoten- 
tiary of  his  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  Japan  at 
the  Court  of  St.  James. 


SPECIMEN      OF      THE      REGULATIONS      CONCERNING 

FOREIGN  JOINT  STOCK  COMPANIES 

OPERATING  IN  RUSSIA 

Conditions  on  which  the  English  Joint  Stock  Company,  under 
the  name  of  "The  South  Russian  Oil  Company,  Limited,"  is 
permitted  to  carry  on  its  operations  in  Russia: 

I.  The  English  Joint  Stock  Company,  under  the  name  of  "  The 
South  Russian  Oil  Company,  Limited,"  begins  its  operations  in 
Russia  by  working  the  lot  of  oil-bearing  land  acquired  by  the  said 

483 


APPENDIX 

company  from  N.  W.  Schmelling,  situated  in  the  Kizlar  district 
of  the  Terek  Territory  and  occupying  an  area  of  30  dessyatinas, 
1 26 1  square  sagenes  (84  acres). 

2.  The  Company  is  subject  to  the  laws  and  regulations  in  force 
in  Russia  and  bearing  upon  the  object  of  the  Company's  opera- 
tions, and  it  is  likewise  subject  to  the  regulations  laid  down  in  the 
Law  of  the  Imperial  Tax  on  Industry  and  Trade  {Gazette  of  Laws, 
1898,  No.  76,  art.  964),  as  well  as  any  laws  and  regulations  that 
may  hereafter  be  passed. 

3.  The  acquisition  by  the  Company  of  any  real  estate  in  Russia, 
either  by  purchase  or  hire,  is  to  be  made  in  accordance  with  the 
general  laws  in  force  in  the  empire,  and  with  the  Imperial  decree 
of  March  14,  1887  (see  p.  515),  in  particular.  Moreover,  real 
estate  may  be  acquired  solely  for  the  requirements  of  the  under- 
taking, after  the  local  authorities  of  the  province  (or  territory) 
have  certified  that  the  acquisition  of  such  property  is  really 
necessary. 

The  acquisition  by  the  Company,  on  any  terms  whatever,  of 
oil-bearing  land  in  the  Caucasus,  over  and  above  that  acquired 
by  the  Company  under  article  i,  as  well  as  any  prospecting  or 
obtaining  of  lots  for  working  oil  in  the  above-mentioned  territory, 
is  permitted  only  on  condition  of  observing  the  regulations  con- 
tained in  note  i,  article  547,  and  note  2,  article  544,  volume  vii. 
of  the  Mining  Code,  edition  of  1895  (see  p.  514). 

4.  The  real  estate  and  movable  property  of  the  Company  within 
the  limits  of  the  [Russian]  empire,  as  well  as  all  sums  due  to  the 
Company,  are  to  be  used  primarily  to  m.eet  the  claims  rising  out 
of  the  operations  of  the  Company  in  Russia. 

5.  A  special  responsible  agency  is  to  be  established  in  Russia 
for  the  management  of  the  Company's  business.  This  agency  is 
to  be  fully  empowered  (a)  to  carry  on  all  the  general  operations  of 
the  Company,  including  the  right  and  duty  of  being  defendant  in 
any  lawsuit  that  may  arise  in  Russia  in  connection  with  the 
Company;  and  (b)  in  particular,  to  decide  immediately  and  in- 
dependently, in  the  name  of  the  Company,  all  cases  when  claims 
against  the  Company  are  brought  either  by  the  Russian  govern- 
ment or  by  private  persons,  whether  the  latter  be  unconnected 
with  the  Company,  or  in  its  service,  operatives  included.  The 
Company  is  obliged  to  give  notice  of  the  address  of  this  agency 
to  the  Minister  of  Finance,  the  Minister  of  Agriculture  and  State 
Domains,  the  civil  governor  of  the  Caucasus,  and  the  provincial 
(or  territorial)  authorities  of  the  place  where  the  real  estate  of  the 
Company  is  situated;  moreover,  the  Company  must  advertise  the 
address,  for  general  information,  in  the  "official  magazines,"  the 
Gazette  of  Finance,  Industry,  and  Commerce,   in   the  official  ga- 

484 


APPENDIX 

zettes  of  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow,  and  in  the  local  provincial 
gazette,  with  the  observance  of  existing  regulations  in  reference 
to  such  advertisements. 

All  the  book-keeping  of  the  Company  in  connection  with  its 
operations  in  Russia  is  to  be  centred  in  the  above-mentioned 
ag'ency. 

6.  In  the  appointment  of  managers  of  oil-fields  and  managers 
of  the  Company's  affairs,  the  Company  is  obliged  to  follow  the 
regulations  laid  down  in  article  547  (note  i)  and  supplement  to 
article  544  (note  2)  of  volume  vii.  of  the  Mining  Code,  edition  of 
1895   (see  p.  514). 

7.  Under  articles  102-104,  107  and  no  of  the  Imperial  Tax  on 
Industry  Law  (Gazette  of  Laws,  i8g8,  No.  76,  article  964),  the 
responsible  agents  of  the  Company  are  obliged  (a)  within  two 
months  after  the  confirmation  of  the  Annual  Report  by  the  general 
meeting,  to  file  two  copies  at  the  Ministry  of  Finance  (Depart- 
ment of  Manufactures  and  Trade),  and  four  copies  at  the  local 
office  of  the  Exchequer  in  the  province  where  the  agency  has  its 
offices — of  the  full  reports  and  balance-sheets,  both  of  the  Com- 
pany's operations  in  general  and  of  its  operations  in  Russia  in 
particular,  and  likewise  a  copy  of  the  protocol  of  the  confirmation 
of  the  reports;  (b)  to  publish  in  the  Gazette  of  Finance  the 
closing  balance-sheet  and  summary  of  the  annual  return  of  the 
Company,  showing  in  the  summary  of  the  operations  carried  on 
in  Russia  the  amount  of  foundation  capital  for  such  operations, 
the  reserve,  etc.,  the  profit  and  loss  account  for  the  last  financial 
year,  and  the  amount  of  net  profit  on  the  aforesaid  operations; 
(c)  to  give  the  local  office  of  the  Exchequer  or  its  manager  any 
supplementary  information  that  may  be  required  and  any  ex- 
planations that  may  be  necessary  for  the  auditing  of  the  returns, 
being  responsible  for  non-observance  of  the  requirements  of  this 
(7)  article  under  articles  104  and  164  of  the  Imperial  Industrial 
Tax  Law;  and  (d)  in  the  cases  mentioned  in  article  no  of  the 
aforesaid  law,  to  submit  to  the  demands  of  the  local  Exchequer 
office  in  regard  to  the  examination  and  verification,  with  the 
object  of  ascertaining  the  net  profit,  of  books  and  documents, 
as  well  as  the  premises  of  the  Company. 

8.  The  time  and  place  of  the  general  meetings  are  to  be  an- 
nounced in  the  publications  mentioned  in  article  5  at  least  a  month 
before  the  date  of  the  meeting,  and  such  announcements  are  to 
contain  an  explanation  of  the  subjects  to  be  discussed,  and  the 
name  and  address  of  the  bank  in  Russia  where  the  shares  of  the 
Company  must  be  presented  in  order  to  obtain  the  right  of  taking 
part  in  the  general  meeting. 

9.  Any  disputes   that  may  arise  between  the  Company  and 

485 


APPENDIX 

government  institutions  or  private  persons,  in  regard  to  the 
operations  of  the  company  in  the  empire,  are  to  be  settled  ac- 
cording to  the  laws  in  force  in  Russia  by  a  Russian  court  of 
law. 

10.  The  operations  of  the  Company  in  Russia  are  exclusively 
restricted  to  the  objects  mentioned  in  article  i  of  these  con- 
ditions, and  for  the  amalgamation  or  union  with  other  similar 
companies  or  undertakings,  as  well  as  for  any  alteration  or 
stipplementing  of  the  statutes  (in  particular,  the  increase  or  de- 
crease of  capital  and  the  issue  of  debentures),  the  company  is 
first  obliged  to  obtain  the  sanction  of  the  Ministry  of  Finance,  of 
Agriculture  and  State  Domains  in  Russia;  in  case  of  liquidation 
the  company  must  inform  the  same  ministries. 

11.  In  regard  to  the  cessation  of  its  operations  in  Russia,  the 
company  is  obliged  to  submit  to  the  laws  and  government  reg- 
ulations now  in  force  or  which  may  hereafter  be  enacted. 


THE    END 


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